Background: Although cervical endocrine operations are classified as clean cases, and prophylactic antibiotics (pABX) are generally not indicated, practice patterns vary.
Study design: We distributed an Internet-based survey to all members of the American and International Associations for Endocrine Surgeons. As a second component of our study, University of California San Francisco hospital records were queried for all readmissions or reoperations within 30 days after thyroidectomy, parathyroidectomy, or neck dissections between January 1, 1999 and December 30, 2007.
Results: Of the 275 endocrine surgeons who responded, 62% "almost never" used pABX and 26.2% administered pABX "almost always." Surgeons' annual caseload (p = 0.21), their experience with past patients who had minor (p = 0.33) or severe (p = 0.83) surgical site infections (SSI) or adverse reactions to antibiotics (p = 0.78) were not associated with their likelihood to prescribe pABX. In the previous 3 years, most surgeons reported treating patients with minor SSIs, and 30% of surgeons treated more than 1 severe SSI. Surgeons who worked in community hospitals were more likely to give pABX than were surgeons in affiliated or university hospitals (49.6% vs 31.8% and 24.5%, respectively (p = 0.04). Unlike European (8.8%) or American surgeons (27.9%), surgeons in Asia were most likely to give pABX "almost always" (58.3%, p = 0.0001). Two-thirds of surgeons would not want antibiotics if they, themselves, needed a cervical operation. Five of the 4,541 patients (0.11%) who underwent cervical operations were readmitted for infectious complications.
Conclusions: Infectious complications after endocrine cervical operations are rare and the use of preoperative antibiotics varies widely. Prescribing behavior appears dogmatic in that 90% of surgeons give preoperative antibiotics almost always or almost never.
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