Cosmetic Surgery Research Today is a free monthly online journal that collates and summarizes the latest research about Cosmetic Surgery, including details on microsurgery, reconstruction, techniques, risks.

Infections after plastic procedures: incidences, etiologies, risk factors, and antibiotic prophylaxis.

Gravante G, Caruso R, Araco A, Cervelli V

Department of General Surgery, University of Tor Vergata in Rome, Via U. Maddalena 40/a, Ciampino (Roma), 00043, Italy, ggravante@hotmail.com.

BACKGROUND: Through a review of the English literature, this study aimed to assess the incidence, etiology, risk factors, and preventive measures for postoperative infections occurring after plastic surgery operations. METHODS: All studies describing the occurrence of infections after plastic surgery procedures including case reports, prospective trials, and retrospective series were selected. RESULTS: The 85 articles analyzed showed that incidences differ greatly among procedures and seem to be influenced by different and specific risk factors for each operation. Etiologic agents are primarily bacteria, although mycobacteria, virus, and fungi also have been described. No agreement exists on the use of antibiotic prophylaxis, except for abdominoplasties, because few specific prospective trials are present in the literature. CONCLUSIONS: Infections remain an important problem in plastic surgery with different points that still need to be clarified. Hopefully, in the future prospective randomized trials will definitively address this issue in order to provide plastic surgeons with clear and unbiased guidelines on its prevention and management.

Published 3 March 2008 in Aesthetic Plast Surg, 32(2): 243-51.
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