Abstract
Background: It has been well documented that administering a prophylactic antibiotic brings down the rate
of postoperative wound infection very strikingly in carpal tunnel release (CTR) surgery. Carpal tunnel
syndrome (CTS) is definitely a compressive neuropathy of the upper limbs, which is both benign and
frequent. The study objective was to determine the postoperative wound infection rate in carpal tunnel
release surgery after having administered a single dose of a prophylactic antibiotic.
Methods: This cross-sectional study was carried out at the department of Neurosurgery, Dammam Medical
Complex-Saudi Arabia. The study was based on 122 patients who were operated for carpal tunnel release
procedures at the centre. Pre-operatively all patients were subjected to nerve conduction studies (NCS) to
document CTS as the definitive diagnosis. As a routine, every patient was administered intravenous loading
dose of cefuroxime (1.5g) at least 1 hour prior to surgery. All patients were treated as day care cases and
were discharged after a few hours of surgery. On discharge, no further antibiotics were administered. Their
wounds were examined at three, ten and fourteen days. Suture removal was performed on the fourteenth
postoperative day.
Results: Superficial redness over the site of incision was noted in three of the patients and wound infection in
two others. These two patients improved with oral antibiotics. Not a single patient needed re-exploration.
Conclusion: The current study showed that this is an efficacious and a very safe protocol to follow. Assuming
the fact that the incidence of surgical site infection (SSI) in CTR surgery is low, the results were not different
when compared to the results from other centres.
Inayat Ali Khan. (2020) Outcome of Single Dose Prophylactic Antibiotic in Carpal Tunnel Release Surgery, The Pakistan Journal of Medicine and Dentistry, Volume 9, Issue-2.
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