Antibiotic prophylaxis in intraoral orthognathic surgery.

A prospective randomized double-blind study was conducted to evaluate two prophylactic antibiotic regimens in a population of 40 patients undergoing intraoral orthognathic surgery. All patients received one intramuscular dose of 600,000 units procaine penicillin G and 400,000 units aqueous penicillin G preoperatively. Two million units aqueous penicillin G were administered intravenously every three hours intraoperatively and postoperatively three hours after the last intraoperative dose. One group of 20 patients then received 2 million units aqueous penicillin G intravenously every four hours for a total of 12 doses (two days) postoperatively. The second group of 20 patients received a placebo intravenously every four hours for a total of 12 doses (two days) postoperatively. Three infections occurred in the group of patients receiving the placebo postoperatively and none in the group of patients receiving the antibiotics postoperatively.

RCT Entities:   Population Interventions Outcomes