Peer-reviewed veterinary case report
Antiseptic wash before dog knee surgery and infection risk
By Sanders, Brittany D et al.·Published in Veterinary surgery : VS·2024·BluePearl Pet Hospital, United States·View original on PubMed →
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Original publication title: Influence of antiseptic lavage during tibial plateau leveling osteotomies on surgical site infection in 1422 dogs.
- Species:
- dog
Plain-English summary
A study looked at 1,422 dogs that had a surgery called tibial plateau leveling osteotomy (TPLO) to fix knee problems. The researchers wanted to see if using antiseptic solution before closing the surgical site would reduce the risk of infections compared to using saline. They found that dogs treated with antiseptic had a higher rate of surgical site infections than those treated with saline. However, giving antibiotics after surgery helped lower the risk of infection. Overall, using antiseptic did not help prevent infections in these dogs after their surgery.
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Abstract
OBJECTIVE: To determine the influence of preclosure antiseptic versus saline lavage on surgical site infections (SSI) in dogs following tibial plateau leveling osteotomy (TPLO). STUDY DESIGN: A multicenter retrospective study. SAMPLE POPULATION: Dogs treated with TPLO (n = 1422) between December 2019 and October 2021. METHODS: The medical records of dogs treated with TPLO were reviewed for preclosure antiseptic lavage or saline irrigation. Additional collected data included signalment, unilateral or bilateral TPLO, postoperative administration of antimicrobial medications, antibiotic agent, surgeon, and development of SSI within 90 postoperative days. Eleven factors were analyzed for association with SSI using univariate and multivariate analysis. RESULTS: Data were collected from the records of 519 dogs treated with antiseptic lavage and 903 dogs treated with saline lavage during TPLO. Surgical site infections were diagnosed more frequently in dogs that received preclosure antiseptic lavage (77/519, 14.84%) than those with saline irrigation (80/903, 8.86%) (p = .001). Single session bilateral TPLO increased the odds of SSI by 2.5x (p = .004). The odds of SSI increased by 11% (p = .001) for every 5 kg increase in bodyweight. Postoperative administration of antimicrobials decreased the risk of SSI (p = .008). CONCLUSION: The preclosure antiseptic lavage tested here did not decrease the incidence of SSI after TPLO. CLINICAL SIGNIFICANCE: The results of this study do not provide evidence to support preclosure antiseptic lavage during TPLOs.
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Search related cases →Original publication on PubMed: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/37935116/