A double-blind prospective study of 99 patients undergoing vaginal and abdominal
hysterectomy was performed at North Carolina Baptist Hospital of the Bowman Gray School of Medicine at Wake Forest University. The study indicated that low-dose intravenous
carbenicillin begun preoperatively and continued for 24 hours resulted in decreased febrile morbidity, postoperative
infection rate, and shortened
hospital stay in patients undergoing both vaginal and abdominal
hysterectomy. The indications for operation, clinical characteristics of patients, and operative and postoperative management were similar for the control and study groups. For the
vaginal hysterectomy group, febrile morbidity was reduced from 34.6% in the control group to 7.7% in the group receiving
carbenicillin. For patients undergoing abdominal
hysterectomy, febrile morbidity was reduced from 54.1% in the control group to 4.0% in the group receiving prophylactic
carbenicillin. Similar reductions for the
carbenicillin study group in
fever index and average total
hospital stay were also noted.
Urinary tract infections were determined to be present more commonly in the group of patients with febrile morbidity receiving no prophylactic
antibiotics. The incidence of
pelvic infections were reduced in both
carbenicillin-treated groups. This investigation suggests that low-dose
carbenicillin prophylaxis is beneficial in reduction of morbidity following both vaginal and abdominal
hysterectomy.