• Karthik Raghunathan, Neil Roy Connelly, Jennifer Friderici, Deborah Naglieri-Prescod, Ryan Joyce, Praveen Prasanna, and Nandakumar Ponnusamy.
• Department of Anesthesiology, Baystate Medical Center, 759 Chestnut St., Springfield, MA 01199, USA.
• Anesth. Analg.. 2013 Mar 1;116(3):644-8.

BackgroundCurrent guidelines from the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists recommend antibiotic prophylaxis for cesarean delivery immediately before incision. The purpose of this study was to measure and describe correlates of adherence to these guidelines in a sample of United States anesthesiologists.MethodsWe invited a random sample of the membership of the American Society of Anesthesiologists (n = 10,000) to complete an online survey.ResultsOf 1052 respondents (10.5%) with complete information for analysis, 63.5% (95% confidence interval 60.6%, 66.3%, n = 668) reported preincision prophylaxis as the standard of care for scheduled cesarean delivery. Twenty-eight percent (n = 299) agreed that the anesthesiologist should take primary responsibility for prophylaxis timing. In a multivariable model, significant variability in preincision prophylaxis was noted for hospital type (community versus teaching, 62% vs 70%, P = 0.004), region (West versus Southeast, 70% vs 59%, P = 0.01; West versus Southwest, 70% vs 58%, P = 0.02), and respondents' belief in appropriate preincision timing (those endorsing routine preincision administration [80%], routine after cord clamp administration [17%], at the discretion of the obstetrician [47%], and the belief that more information was needed [43%]) (P < 0.001 all comparisons). Respondents' belief about appropriate preincision timing was the strongest discriminator in the model (change in area under the receiver operating characteristic curve = 0.13 vs ≤0.02 for all others).ConclusionAdherence with current prophylactic antibiotic administration guidelines for cesarean delivery is not uniform. Education initiatives, regulatory maneuvers, and process improvement should be targeted at sites where anesthesiologists do not comply with current guidelines.

19 keywords...

hide…