JAMA surgery
-
Cefazolin is the preoperative antibiotic of choice because it is safer and more efficacious than second-line alternatives. Surgical patients labeled as having penicillin allergy are less likely to prophylactically receive cefazolin and more likely to receive clindamycin or vancomycin, which results in higher rates of surgical site infections. ⋯ These findings suggest that most patients with a penicillin allergy history may safely receive cefazolin. The exception is patients with confirmed penicillin allergy in whom additional care is warranted.
-
Accurate surgical scheduling affects patients, clinical staff, and use of physical resources. Although numerous retrospective analyses have suggested a potential for improvement, the real-world outcome of implementing a machine learning model to predict surgical case duration appears not to have been studied. ⋯ Implementing machine learning-generated predictions for surgical case durations may improve case duration accuracy, presurgical resource use, and patient wait time, without increasing surgeon wait time between cases.