Topical antibiotic prophylaxis for prevention of surgical wound infections from dermatologic procedures: a systematic review and meta-analysis

AbstractImportance: Topical antibiotics are not indicated for postsurgical wound infection prophylaxis in clean and clean-contaminated dermatologic surgeries, yet many dermatologists continue to prescribe them. The objective of our systematic review and meta-analysis was to critically assess the efficacy of topical antibiotics in terms of preventing postsurgical wound infections in the dermatology outpatient setting.Methods: PubMed, Embase, MD Consult, Science Direct, Springer Link, DynaMed and Cochrane online medical databases were searched from 1980 to 2013.Results: Using random effects modeling, the pooled odds ratio of developing a postsurgical wound infection was 0.71 (95% CI, 0.42–1.19).Discussion: Pooled data of the four trials in the meta-analysis did not show a statistically significant difference in incidence of postsurgical wound infections between topical antibiotics and petrolatum/paraffin. In the setting of moist occlusive dressings, there is no statistically significant difference in prophy...