Prospective randomized study for antibiotic prophylaxis in spine surgery: choice of drug, dosage, and timing

This report has been verified by one or more authors of the original publication.

90 patients who underwent spinal surgery participated in this study to compare the preventative effects of cephalosporin (doses, timing and generation) on infection rates. Patients received 1 g cefazolin (1st generation) or 1 g cefuroxime (2nd generation) or 1.5 g cefuroxime (2nd generation) at different times prior to surgery. 2 out of the 90 patients (2.2%) resulted in infections that were treated without further complications. In order to effectively determine the efficacy of these prophylactic treatments a much larger multicentre trial is required.