PROPHYLAXIS OF SURGICAL SITE INFECTION AFTER MESH REPAIR OF INGUINAL HERNIA.

bjective: To compare the effectiveness of single dose intravenous antibiotics with placebo on patients undergoing
inguinal hernia mesh repair in terms of surgical site infection.
Methods: This was a randomized control trial of one year duration and was conducted in surgical unit HMC, Peshawar.
In this study 350 patients were randomly allocated in 2 groups by lottery method. Patients in group A were given a
single dose of antibiotics i-e 1gm Cefazolin one hour before inguinal hernia mesh repair and patients in group B were
not given any antibiotic i-e placebo before inguinal hernia mesh repair. Al the data was entered and analyzed in SPSS
10 version. P value of 0.05 was considered significant.
Results: In this study 350 patients were included, 175 patients in group A, who received single prophylactic dose
of 1 gm cefazolin 1 hour before induction of anesthesia and 175 patients in group B who received 5 ml of placebo.
Surgical site infection was observed in 6 patients in Group A and in 10 patients in Group B which was statistically not
significant (p = 0.304).
Conclusion: There is no significant difference in the rate of infection between the antibiotic prophylactic and placebo
groups and there is no extra benefit of using antibiotics prophylactically in case of inguinal hernia mesh repair.
Key Words: mesh repair, inguinal hernia, surgical site infection.