News

Withdrawal of cephalothin and cefoxitin from surgical imprests

The new Mater surgical prophylaxis guidelines recommend the use of cephazolin (+/- metronidazole) as the first line agent. We no longer support the use of cefoxitin or cephalothin at Mater.

 

Both these agents are considered inferior to cephazolin, achieving lower peak levels in the serum and shorter half-lives. We will therefore be removing these agents from theatre imprests on 19 June.

 

Key performance indicators for Antimicrobial Stewardship in respect to surgical prophylaxis

 

The following has been chosen as key performance indicators for surgical prophylaxis, in line with recommendations from the Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Health Care:

 

We will be undertaking regular audits of surgical prophylaxis in relation to this objective. We encourage you to prescribe according to Mater surgical prophylaxis guidelines. Antibiotics should be given up to 1 hour and ideally 15 to 30 minutes prior to skin incision. In respect to duration of prophylaxis, our guidelines recommend a single dose only (excluding vascular surgery). There is  lack of evidence to support prolonged use of antibiotics and conversely its use has been associated with increased complications (e.g. infections with multi-resistant organisms, clostridium difficle infection). Recent audits would suggest that a significant proportion of patients are receiving greater than 24 hours of antibiotic therapy. 

 

These documents are accessible via the Mater website:

For further information, please contact Director, Infectious Diseases, Dr Paul Griffin via [email protected].