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Previous Volume 355:2693-2695 December 21, 2006 Number 25 Next

	Since this article has no abstract, we have provided an extract of the first 100 words of the full text and any section headings.

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In this issue of the Journal, Itani and colleagues¹ describe a study in which 1002 patients were randomly assigned to receive either ertapenem or cefotetan in a single dose before elective colorectal surgery. Many experienced surgeons and hospital epidemiologists will probably be surprised that the overall rate of failure in the modified intention-to-treat analysis was approximately 40% for patients receiving ertapenem and 50% for those receiving cefotetan. A possible explanation for these high failure rates is that the authors of the study, unlike those of most previous trials, included unexplained use of postoperative antibiotics and anastomotic leaks in their definition . . . [Full Text of this Article]

Source Information

From the Duke Infection Control Outreach Network, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, NC.

This article has been cited by other articles:

• (2007). Ertapenem vs. Cefotetan for Infection Prophylaxis Before Elective Colorectal Surgery. JWatch Gastroenterology 2007: 2-2 [Full Text]