LAUSR

A total of 726 sites qualified for the study, of which 22 received prophylactic antibiotics for surgeries below the knee (n = 15), groin surgery (n = 1), wedge repairs of the lip (n = 3), or of the ear (n = 3). A total of 6 infections occurred with an overall infection rate of 0.83%, all of which presented to our institution for evaluation (Table 1). This low overall rate is in line with previous studies. Five infections occurred in patients who did not receive prophylactic antibiotics (n = 704) resulting in an infection rate among low-risk patients of 0.71%. One person who received prophylactic antibiotics had an infection resulting in an infection rate among higher risk patients of 4.55%, although this patient reported only taking one dose of antibiotic because of nausea. Ideally, limiting use of antibiotics to patients with an increased risk of infection based on rigorous research specific to this setting would help to decrease risks associated with unnecessary use of antibiotics. Unfortunately, because of the low number of patients who received prophylactic antibiotics based on the protocol and the low number of infections, risk factors could not be assessed with confidence. This study is also limited by involving only a single center and we could not guarantee that all infections were treated at our institution, which could artificially lower our final infection rate. Further research is needed to clarify when prophylactic antibiotics would be of significant benefit and if having multiple potential risk factors could affect infection risk. Acknowledgments Special thanks to the TTUHSC Clinical Research Institute, and especially Phillip Watkins for performing the statistical analysis.