title: Antibiotic prophylaxis for arthroscopy of the knee: is it necessary?
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Our purpose was to determine the incidence of infection after routine arthroscopic meniscectomy of the knee with and without preoperative prophylactic intravenous antibiotics.
  
  
  METHODS
  A retrospective review of 3,231 arthroscopic knee surgeries was performed at a physician-owned in-office ambulatory surgery center over a 3-year period, of which 2,780 were arthroscopic meniscectomies. The cases were evaluated with respect to the incidence of deep infection as evidenced by a positive joint aspirate. Approximately 30% of the patients had prophylactic intravenous antibiotics within 1 hour before the arthroscopic procedure.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The infection rate was 0.15% in those patients who received antibiotics and 0.16% in those who did not receive antibiotics (P = .59).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The results of this study confirm that there is no value in administering antibiotics before routine arthroscopic meniscectomy to prevent joint sepsis.
  
  
  METHODS
  Level III, retrospective comparative study.
authors.affiliation: Summit Orthopedics, Ltd., St. Paul, Minnesota 55102, USA.
authors.forename: Jack M
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Bert
authors.forename: Debra
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Giannini
authors.forename: Leslie
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Nace
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000758:Anesthesia / Q000379:methods; D019072:Antibiotic Prophylaxis; D001182:Arthroscopy / Q000379:methods*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007239:Infections / Q000188:drug therapy / Q000453:epidemiology; D007719:Knee Joint / Q000601:surgery*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011183:Postoperative Complications / Q000517:prevention & control; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012189:Retrospective Studies