gms | German Medical Science

Introduction: While peri- or postoperative treatment with antibiotic agents is standard practice today, little is known about the postoperative development of the flora in wound beds. It is unclear to which extent the normal flora is affected by the treatment with antibiotics. Moreover it is unknown if the prophylaxis may cause a potential shift in the microbial spectrum.

The healthy flora of the nose and paranasal sinus consists of aerobic and anaerobic, e.g. staphylococcus and streptococcus.

Method: Patients planed for an elective paranasal sinus operation are perioperatively treated with clindamycin 600 mg. Preoperative, two and seven days after the surgery, samples taken from within the nose using smear tests were tested microbiologically.

Results: A total of 22 patients ranging from 23 to 57 years of age have been tested. None of them took an immunomodulatory agent.

The untreated flora identified by the analysis was without any pathologicals findings and included anaerobics, staphylococcus, streptococcus and neisseriae as expected.

During the observation period the spectrum of flora did not change.

Conclusion: The static nature of the observed microbial flora suggests that the application of antibiotic agents as a matter of routine may not be required. Otherwise it appears, that the treatment does not support the development of a pathological flora either. In addition the results show, that in case of a postoperative infection standard antibiotics can be used, instead of a postoperative flora adapted antibiotics, since there is no change. In the future we will compare the spectra of patients treated with antibiotics to non treated samples in a double blind study.