Meta-analysis of the effectiveness of prophylactic antibiotics in the prevention of postoperative complications after tension-free hernioplasty.

BACKGROUND Previous reviews of the effectiveness of antibiotic prophylaxis for elective inguinal hernia repair were not conclusive owing to the limited number of patients enrolled in randomized controlled trials (RCTs). However, since new RCTs involving patients undergoing tention-free hernioplasty have been published in recent years, we performed a new meta-analysis to evaluate the effectiveness of antibiotic prophylaxisin the prevention of postoperative complications after this procedure. METHODS We performed a meta-analysis of RCTs studying the use of antibiotic prophylaxis to prevent postoperative complications in patients undergoing tension-free hernioplasty. RESULTS We included 6 RCTs conducted around the world in our analysis. Compared with the control condition, antibiotic prophylaxis was associated with a lower incidence of incision infection (odds ratio [OR] 0.45, 95% confidence interval [CI] 0.26-0.77, p = 0.004). There were no significant differences in risk for incision hematoma (OR 1.57, 95% CI 0.60-4.10, p = 0.35), respiratory infection (OR 1.00, 95% CI 0.17-5.79, p > 0.99) or urinary tract infection (OR 1.81, 95% CI 0.38-8.52, p = 0.45) between the 2 conditions. CONCLUSION Antibiotic prophylaxis use in patients undergoing tension-free hernioplasty decreases the rate of incision infection by 55%.