Giving antibiotics before operation might improve safety, study finds. Holes in surgical gloves increase the risk of surgical site infection among patients who aren't given antibiotics before their surgery, Swiss researchers say. In procedures lasting more than two hours, the rate of glove perforations ranges from 8 percent to 50 percent, according to a study published in the June issue of the Archives of Surgery. Sterile gloves worn by surgical staff can be perforated by needles, bone fragments and sharp surgical instruments, and the resulting holes enable skin-borne pathogens to travel from the hands of surgical staff into patients. In the study, Dr. Heidi Misteli and colleagues analyzed 4,417 surgical procedures performed at University Hospital Basel between 2000 and 2001, and found that sterile glove perforations occurred in 677 of the surgeries. Antibiotic therapy given before surgery to prevent infection was used in 3,233 of the surgeries, including 605 of the surgeries invol
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