Journal of Infectious Diseases & Therapy
Open Access

Abstract

The aims of an antimicrobial agent for surgical prophylaxis are to prevent surgical site infection (SSI), reduce the duration
and cost of health care, prevent SSI-related morbidity and mortality, produce no adverse effects, and have no adverse
consequences for the microbial flora of the patient or the hospital.
To achieve these objectives, an antimicrobial agent should be also active against the pathogens most likely to contaminate
the surgical site, given in an appropriate dosage and with a timing that ensures adequate serum and tissue concentrations
during the period of potential contamination during surgery, to be safe, and administered for the shortest effective period to
minimize adverse effects, costs and the development of resistance to antibiotics. The selection of an appropriate antimicrobial
agent for a specific patient should take into account the characteristics of the ideal agent, the comparative efficacy of the
antimicrobial agent for the procedure, the safety profile, and the patient’s conditions (such as: medication allergies, etc.). For
most procedures, cefazolin is the drug of choice for prophylaxis because it is the most widely studied antimicrobial agent, with
large proven efficacy. It has a desirable duration of action, spectrum of activity against organisms commonly encountered
in surgery, reasonable safety, and low cost. In most of the cases, antimicrobial selection is based on safety profile, cost, ease
of administration, pharmacokinetic profile and bactericidal activity. The agent chosen should have activity against the most
common surgical-site pathogens. In this session, we will review the novelties about antibiotic prophylaxis that have been
published in the literature in last years, to help us to choose the best antibiotic prophylaxis in each situation.

Biography

Ana María Arnaiz-García finished her postgraduate studies in Medicine in 2002 (University of Cantabria-Spain) and completed her resident period in General
Internal Medicine in 2007. Since then, she works as consultant in the Unit of Infectious Diseases in the University Hospital Marqués de Valdecilla (Santander-
Spain). Her areas of expertise are the nosocomial infections, overall those concerning the treatment of diabetic foot, cardiovascular and neurosurgical patients.
These fields are the main fields of her researches. She has published more than 20 papers in reputed journals and is serving as an editorial board member of
repute.