Although using antibiotics during surgery reduces surgical site infection rates, a new study in JAMA Pediatrics suggests physicians aren't consistent in how they administer antibiotic treatments to patients.
The authors evaluated more than 670,000 operations, of which antibiotic prophylaxis was used in 348,119. They found that within hospitals included in the study, antibiotic use by procedure ranged from 11.5 percent to 100 percent.
"We found that there is substantial national hospital- and procedure-level variation in the use of antibiotic prophylaxis in children undergoing surgery in the United States, and a substantial proportion of this AP use may be inappropriate," the authors wrote. "We found that many children did not receive antibiotics when prophylaxis was indicated, and an even greater proportion received AP despite a lack of clear benefit."