To establish the role of surgical antibiotic prophylaxis (SAP) in the prevention of surgical site infection (SSI) in children undergoing surgery.
Design:
A systematic review and meta-analysis of six databases: MEDLINE (PubMed), EMBASE, CINAHL Plus, Cochrane Library, Web of Science, and Scopus.
Study Selection:
Included studies (irrespective of design) compared outcomes in children undergoing surgery, aged 0 to 21 years who received SAP with those who did not, with SSI as an outcome, using the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) definitions for SSI.
Data Extraction:
Two independent reviewers applied eligibility criteria, assessed the risk of bias, and extracted data.
Results:
A total of six randomized control trials and 26 observational studies including 202,593 surgical procedures among 202,405 participants were included in the review. The pooled odds ratio of SSI was 1.20; (95% confidence interval [CI], 0.91–1.58) comparing those receiving SAP with those not receiving SAP, with moderate heterogeneity in effect size between studies (τ2 = 0.246; χ2 = 69.75; p < 0.001; I2 = 57.0%). There was insufficient data on many factors known to be associated with SSI, such as cost, length of stay, re-admission, and re-operation; it was therefore not possible to perform subanalyses on these.
Conclusions:
This review and metanalysis did not find a preventive action of SAP against SSI, and our results suggest that SAP should not be used in surgical wound class (SWC) I procedures in children. However, considering the poor quality of included studies, the principal message of this study is in highlighting the absence of quality data to drive evidence-based decision-making in SSI prevention in children, and in advocating for more research in this field.
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