Background: Role of antimicrobial prophylaxis (AMP) in preventing surgical site infection (SSI) in clean surgeries remains uncertain. There is no definitive evidence supporting or omitting the routine use of AMP in laparoscopic donor nephrectomy (LDN), which is considered a clean surgery. This study compares the incidence of SSIs between kidney donors who received prophylaxis and those who did not during LDN and aims to evaluate the safety of omitting AMP. Materials and Methods: A study was conducted involving 132 kidney donors who underwent LDN between January 2023 and March 2025. The study is an investigator-initiated observational study, and the patients were allocated into two groups: Group 1 ( n = 65) received a single dose of 1.5 g intravenous cefuroxime sodium, whereas Group 2 ( n = 67) received no antibiotic prophylaxis. All patients were monitored for 30 days postoperatively for the development of SSIs. Results: Of the 132 patients included, 72 were female, and 60 were male, with a mean age of 44 years. The incidence of SSIs was 1.6% ( n = 1) in Group 1 and 4.5% ( n = 3) in Group 2. Urinary tract infection occurred in three patients (2.27%); one in the AMP group and two in the no-AMP group ( P = 0.57). The mean hospital stay was 2.59 days, with no significant difference between the groups. Conclusion: The present study found no significant difference in postoperative infection rates between patients who received AMP and those who did not during LDN. The findings suggest that it is safe to omit prophylactic antibiotics in LDN.
Mishra et al. (Thu,) studied this question.