Use of Prophylactic Antibiotics in Glaucoma Surgery: A Single Center's Experience

ABSTRACT

PURPOSE: To evaluate the use of prophylactic antibiotics in glaucoma surgery and the prevalence of postoperative endophthalmitis. METHODS: Retrospective medical record review was performed on 136 eyes which underwent glaucoma operation by one surgeon from March 2008 to February 2010 and were followed at least till 6 months postoperatively (glaucoma drainage device implantation; 95 eyes, trabeculectomy; 41 eyes). RESULTS: For intravenous antibiotics injection, 10 eyes used 3rd generation cephalosporin, 54 eyes used 4-fluoroquinolone, 72 eyes used 2nd generation cephalosporin. For oral antibiotics, 125 eyes used 3rd generation cephalosporin, 1 case used 4-fluoroquinolone, and other 10 cases did not use oral antibiotics after the surgery. Total period of systemic antibiotics use showed various distributions with 14 eyes more than 5 days, 115 eyes 4-5 days, and 8 cases less than 4 days. Six eye which used 4-fluoroquinolone and 3 eyes which used cephalosporin showed side effect such as skin lesion and nausea. There has been no single occurrence of endophthalmitis. CONCLUSIONS: Various kinds of prophylactic antibiotics were used for glaucoma surgery and the period of antibiotics use was different among patients. However, there has been no single occurrence of endophthalmitis till 6 months postoperative follow up.