A study that will be presented at the Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine's annual meeting this week suggests using adjunctive azithromycin may prevent infections in women who have undergone a cesarean delivery.
The study focused on women giving birth to a single infant who had a C-section during labor or at least four hours after their membrane ruptured. All the women received the standard antibiotic and either 500mg azithromycin or an identical placebo. All total, 1,019 women were randomized into the azithromycin group and 994 were randomly given the placebo between April 2011 and November 2014.
The findings showed adding azithromycin to the usual antibiotic for nonelective cesarean delivery reduced post-cesarean delivery infections and severe adverse maternal events, without affecting neonatal outcomes.
"Pregnancy-associated infection is a major cause of death; our findings support the use of azithromycin in addition to the standard cephalosporin for cesarean delivery in women at high risk of infection," said Alan Tita, MD, PhD, professor of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology and Center for Women's Reproductive Health at the University of Alabama in Birmingham.
Dr. Tita is presenting the findings of the study at the SMFM annual meeting.