Antibiotic Use in Facial Fracture Post Injury

Plain-language summary

Facial fractures make up a significant proportion of injuries in trauma patients (1, 2). Approximately 3 million individuals suffer craniofacial trauma in the United States on a yearly basis, and approximately 50% of all wounds presenting to emergency rooms involve the head and neck (1, 2). Treatment of these fractures often results in standard surgical interventions. While up to the early 1980's perioperative antibiotic prophylaxis in maxillofacial surgery was controversial, its efficacy is well accepted today (3). Previous research work showed that the administration of antibiotics one hour preoperatively and eight hours after the intervention reduces the incidence of infectious complications in facial fractures from 42.2% to 8.9% (4). However there is still no consensus about the duration of the postoperative administration. In literature postoperative prophylaxis in facial fractures varies from single-shot up to duration of 7 and even ten days postoperatively. The use of antibiotics can be associated with allergic or toxic reactions, adverse effects, drug interactions and increasing bacterial resistance (5). In addition some authors assume that a prolonged administration of antibiotics might increase the risk of infectious complications via superinfection. On the other hand a short term or single shot administration might not be enough to prevent the onset of a postoperative infection. Up to date there is no standard to support the duration of antibiotic administration after surgical repair of a facial fracture. In this proposal, Investigators are aiming to investigate if either the utility of antibiotics administered for 3 days or 5 days make a difference in the clinical outcomes after facial fractures.

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