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Antibiotic prophylaxis for arthroscopy of the knee: is it necessary?

Bert JM, Giannini D, Nace L

Summit Orthopedics, Ltd., St. Paul, Minnesota 55102, USA.

PURPOSE: Our purpose was to determine the incidence of infection after routine arthroscopic meniscectomy of the knee with and without preoperative prophylactic intravenous antibiotics. METHODS: A retrospective review of 3,231 arthroscopic knee surgeries was performed at a physician-owned in-office ambulatory surgery center over a 3-year period, of which 2,780 were arthroscopic meniscectomies. The cases were evaluated with respect to the incidence of deep infection as evidenced by a positive joint aspirate. Approximately 30% of the patients had prophylactic intravenous antibiotics within 1 hour before the arthroscopic procedure. RESULTS: The infection rate was 0.15% in those patients who received antibiotics and 0.16% in those who did not receive antibiotics (P = .59). CONCLUSIONS: The results of this study confirm that there is no value in administering antibiotics before routine arthroscopic meniscectomy to prevent joint sepsis. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: Level III, retrospective comparative study.

Published 9 January 2007 in Arthroscopy, 23(1): 4-6.
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