Antibiotic
An antimicrobial or antibiotic is an agent that kills microorganisms or inhibits their growth.
Examples
Broad-spectrum antibiotics
Preoperative antibiotic prophylaxis
Intraventricular antibiotic
Prolonged Antibiotic Use
see Ventriculostomy related infection prevention.
Prolonged antibiotic prophylaxis, while the EVD is in place, does not decrease the risk of infection and may select for resistant organisms. However, one dose pre-procedure antimicrobial may be administered.
Prophylactic systemic antibiotics, while drains are in place, are frequently used to reduce surgical site infection rate (SSIR), though the practice remains controversial. Pivazyan et al. demonstrated a two-fold reduction of SSI with the implementation of the PPSA regimen. This benefit was demonstrated separately for both cervical and lumbar regions. Randomized trials and increase sample size are warranted to elucidate the significance of PPSA in posterior spinal surgery. Level of evidence: 3 1).
For Abola et al. there was no difference in the rate of surgical site infections between patients who received 24 hours of postoperative antibiotics and those who did not. Additionally, they found no observable risks, such as more antibiotic-resistant infections and C. difficile infections, with prolonged antibiotic use 2).
Prolonged antibiotics in neonates with negative blood culture were associated with significantly longer hospital length of stay and increased total cost of hospitalization 3).