Antibiotic prophylaxis with cefotiam in percutaneous nephrolithotomy

: The percutaneous extraction of renal calculi in patients whose urines are sterile is considered to be a "clean-contaminated" surgery. The post-operatory infection is thought to be the result of the urethral catheter and the nephrostomy tube. The bacteria that are more after implicated are the Gram-negative bacteria. Therefore we found useful to give as a prophylactic treatment cefotiam, which is a 3rd generation cephalosporin, and have the advantage or reaching elevated urinary concentration as well as having a broad-spectrum activity on both Gram-negative bacteria and Staphylococcus. It has been used as follow: 1) with the anesthetic induction give 2 g IV push; 2) these give 1 g IV 12 hourly four times. It has been noted, that in all patients receiving this regimen, no post-operatory infection or urinary tract infection was found during the 48 hours following surgery. Therefore we think that due to the reasonable cost of the regimen, we advise it for this type of surgery.