Is There a Difference in Infection Risk Between Single and Multiple Doses of Prophylactic Antibiotics? A Meta-analysis

14 studies (9691 patients) were included in this meta-analysis comparing single-dose antibiotics vs. multi-dose antibiotics for infection prophylaxis in patients undergoing an orthopedic procedure involving an implant placement. The primary outcome of interest was the incidence of surgical site infection. Results revealed no significant difference in the incidence of surgical site infection between single-dose and multi-dose antibiotic use. In the sub-group analyses of arthroplasty-specific studies and studies of low to unclear risk of bias on the Cochrane risk of bias tool, no significant difference in the incidence of infection were observed in either sub-group analysis between single-dose and multi-dose antibiotics use.