[Antibiotic prophylaxis in cardiac surgery: practice patterns].
OBJECTIVE
To assess the prescription patterns in French and foreign centres for antibiotic prophylaxis in cardiac surgery.


METHODS
Phone and written surveys concerned 64 French and 70 foreign centres. It focused on the first injection, the duration of treatment and the recommended agents.


RESULTS
87% of the French centres and 67% of the foreign centres answered the questionnaire. The first injection took place at anaesthesia induction in all French centres but during administration of premedication in 11% of foreign centres (p < 0.05). The duration of prophylaxis was restricted to the intraoperative period only in 20% and 15% of centres, respectively (ns), as specified by the recommendations. No French centres carried on the antibiotics more than 48 h versus 11% of foreign centres (p < 0.05). Cephalosporines of the second generation were prescribed in 84 and 49% of centres, respectively (p < 0.05). The combination of two antibiotics was less frequent in France than in foreign countries (5 versus 17%, p < 0.01). In absence of betalactamin allergy glycopeptides were not utilized in France versus 8% in foreign countries (p < 0.05). In case of allergy vancomycin was used in 66% of French and 42% of foreign centres.


CONCLUSIONS
The French recommendations may have influenced favourably the antibiotic choice but the prophylaxis duration was too long in most of the non French European centres.
Helou
S
S
Service d'anesthésie-réanimation, hôpital cardiovasculaire et pneumologique Louis Pradel, BP Lyon Montchat, 69394 Lyon, France.
Bastien
O
O
Vandenesch
F
F
Ninet
J
J
Lehot
J J
JJ
D019072:Antibiotic Prophylaxis / Q000592:standards*; D006348:Cardiac Surgical Procedures; D011307:Drug Prescriptions / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D005060:Europe; D005602:France; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires