Bacteriologic Study and Prophylactic Antibiotics in the Acute and Complicated Appendicitis

ABSTRACT

This prospective study was performed to determine the effective antibiotics for use in treating acute appendicitis patients during the perioperative period. To identify the sensitive antibiotics, the peritoneal fluid was cultured during operation. Also, wound infection was defined as pus or serous discharge in the wound or when we opened the wound under suspicious of a wound problem. The results were obtained as follows 1) A total of 138 cases treated during the two years from January 1995 to December 1996 were examined; 84 of them (60.87%) were found to have positive peritoneal fluid cultures, of which 29 (34.52%) were monomicrobial and 55 (65.48%) were polymicrobial. 2) The most common species were Escherichia coli (73.81%), Bacteroides (32.14%), Klebsiella (16.67%), Pseudomonas (9.52%), and Streptococcus (9.52%). 3) In the sensitivity test, the most sensitive drugs were aminoglycosides and cefotaxime. 4) Infectious complications, which developed in 27 (19.6%) patients, were wound infection and intraabdominal abscess. 5) The average length of stay for all patients 9.9 days (range 3 to 32 days). 6) The common organisms curtured from the complication cases were E. coli and Bacteroides.