Thirty-seven operative cases of breast (n=26) and thyroid disease (n=11) were randomly allocated to two groups. One group was administrated 500mg/day of azithromycin (AZM) for 3 days from 2 days before operation to the day of operation, and the other group was administrated 3g/day of sulbactam/ ampicillin (SBT/ABPC) for 3 days from the operative day. Two groups were evaluated for the incidences of postoperative wound infection and remote infection prospectively. There was one surgical site infection (SSI) in SBT/ABPC group (1/17:5.9%), and one case of remote infection (RI) in AZM group (1/20:5.0%).
The remaining 35 cases had no clinical infectious signs, and were in normal rangs as to CRP, WBC, and body temperature for a 7-day observation period after the operation. There were no significant differences between two groups in those factors.
The oral administration of AZM appears to have the same effect to prevent postoperative infection as intravenous administration of SBT/ABPC has.