Preventing infection of the incision after appendectomy by using metronidazole preoperatively to infiltrate tissues at the incision

methods From January 1991 to July 1995, 260 patients with acute appendicitis were operated on. After excluding 21 patients, the remaining 239 cases were randomly divided into two groups. Group A was given the treatment and group B was the control group. Precisely 0.915 g metronidazole disodium phosphate injection (Tongzhen Pharmaceutical Co., Shan Xi Province, P. R. China) or 25% metronidazole glucose solution was added to 100 mL 0.9% normal saline. After anesthesizing the patients in group A, 60 to 80 mL of the solution was injected into the subcutaneous tissue and muscle. The control group B was given intravenous injection of metronidazole disodium phosphate and cephazolin postoperatively. results In the 119 cases in group A, the rate of incision infection was 0.8%. By contrast, the rate of infection among the 120 cases in group B was 11.6%. The statistical analysis (chi square) was significant, with P< 0.001 showing that preincisional or intraincisional infiltration with metronidazole was effective.