A new trial of prophylactic antibiotic administration has found that this measure can potentially almost halve infective complications following operative vaginal delivery.
The study was conducted by researchers at the Unversity of Oxford and across 27 UK hospitals, including 3427 women in total. Results were recently published in The Lancet.
The key finding was that only 11% of women treated with antibiotics developed an infection compared with 19% of those in the placebo group. Fewer women in the antibiotic group reported wound breakdown, perineal pain and need for perineal care.
An editorial accompanying the study called the results ‘practice changing’ as the treatment could prevent at least 432,000 maternal infections each year.
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Source: Medscape
