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O U T P AT I E N T S U R G E R Y M A G A Z I N E O N L I N E | D E C E M B E R 2 0 1 4
THE SURGEONS' Lounge
ANTIBIOTIC PROPHYLAXIS: When's It Best to Administer Antibiotics?
Phenelle Segal, RN, CIC, president of Infection Control Consulting Services, shares her thoughts on the optimal timing of pre-op antibiotics:
• 1 or 2 hours?
SCIP measures say you should start prophylactic antibiotics within 1 hour before incision and within 2 hours for vancomycin
and quinolones. But what is the definition of "within 1 or 2 hours," and what about cases that aren't ready for IV infusion 2 hours beforehand? Many times, 1 hour is stretching it depending on the type of procedure. I refer to the SCIP guideline tool developed by Quality Net/CMS to interpret this measure. "For antibiotics with less than 1-hour infusion times, anesthesia will start the antibiotic in the OR. The longer-infusing antibiotics (vancomycin and quinolones) may be started in same-day surgery (2-hour timeframe to incision)."
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ANTIBIOTIC USE
Ensuring the proper timing of antibiotic prophylaxis is
increasingly complex in outpatient surgery.
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