Drugs used to tackle hospital-acquired infections can increase post-op complications
Monday, October 31, 2011 - 14:31
in Health & Medicine
The introduction of new antibiotic regimes to tackle hospital-acquired infections, such as C. difficile, must take into account the possibility of increased infections following specific surgical procedures. Researchers have studied 709 consecutive patients over 20 months. Patients undergoing a standard surgical procedure to diagnose prostate cancer developed more than five times as many infective complications when a new standard antibiotic regime was introduced in line with national guidance. These included a number of cases of sepsis and one case of septic shock - a highly significant finding.