title: Antibiotics before surgery.
abstract: The antimicrobial era (along with greater surgical skill and precision) has brought us relative safety for procedures that previously were fraught with danger. Civil War amputation surgeries, for example, had an extraordinarily high incidence of infections and mortality. Staying aware of and avoiding the small, but real, risks associated with surgical antibiotic prophylaxis will help sustain the advances we enjoy today.
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Kaatz
mesh_terms: D019072:Antibiotic Prophylaxis; D004334:Drug Administration Schedule; D006801:Humans; D008826:Microbial Sensitivity Tests; D013530:Surgical Wound Infection / Q000209:etiology / Q000517:prevention & control*