Peer-reviewed veterinary case report
Evaluation for Postoperative Infections Following Cutaneous Punch Biopsies in Dogs and Cats: 154 Cases (2013-2018).
- Journal:
- Journal of the American Animal Hospital Association
- Year:
- 2022
- Authors:
- Pieper, Jason B et al.
- Affiliation:
- From the Department of Veterinary Clinical Sciences
Plain-English summary
A study looked at dogs and cats that had a specific type of skin biopsy called a cutaneous punch biopsy between 2013 and 2018 to see how often they developed infections afterward. Out of 154 cases, only 1.9% developed a secondary infection, with 2.3% of dogs affected and none of the cats. The research found that the risk of complications was lower when the biopsy was done for skin diseases rather than for lumps, and it was higher if the biopsy was taken from the trunk area of the body. Overall, the findings suggest that infections after these biopsies are rare, and giving antibiotics beforehand is usually not needed if there is no infection present at the time of the procedure.
Abstract
Antimicrobial stewardship is becoming more important every day with increasing bacterial resistance and limitations on antibiotics. Prophylactic antibiotics are not necessary with all procedures, which has been shown previously with a variety of human and veterinary surgeries. Medical records were retrospectively evaluated for cases who had a cutaneous punch biopsy performed between 2013 and 2018 including the following information: species, signalment, concurrent diseases, concurrent medications, location of biopsy, histopathologic diagnosis, and bacterial infections postoperatively. The prevalence of secondary infections, due to punch biopsies in all animals, was 1.9% and further divided into 2.3% (3/128) of dogs and 0% (0/26) of cats. It was determined that the relative risk of developing complications from punch biopsy was 0.06 (0.01-0.93) when diagnosing a dermatologic disease versus a cutaneous mass (neoplastic and nonneoplastic), which was statistically significant. The risk increased 2.16 (0.16-59.91) times if the biopsy site was the trunk, which includes the neck, thorax, and abdomen. These results indicate that in veterinary medicine, postoperative complications are uncommon with cutaneous punch biopsies. The administration of prophylactic antibiotics in dogs and cats is unnecessary when performing a punch biopsy when there is no infection present at the time of biopsy.
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Search related cases →Original publication: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/36049237/