Objective:

to evaluate the use of prophylactic antibiotics in patients undergoing clean elective surgeries, in private centers in the Aragua state, in the period between February and August of 2019.

Methods:

we conducted a prospective, longitudinal, observational, analytical epidemiological clinical study. The participants consisted of non-probabilistic sample of the intentional type of 49 patients of the total study population, undergoing elective surgery, cholecystectomy (14 / 28.57%), umbilical herniorrhaphy (6 / 12.24%) and inguinal hernioplasty (29 /59.18%). The sample was classified into 2 groups, a group A, who received prophylactic antibiotic therapy and a group B, who did not receive it.

Results:

the mean age was 37.7 ± 12.17 years, predominantly male. On the fifth day of the postoperative period, no signs of infectious complication were observed neither in group A nor in group B. On the tenth day after the postoperative period, signs of infectious complication were observed in one patient (4.3%) belonging to the antibiotic administration group. No infectious complication was observed in the group without antibiotic administration.

Conclusion:

it was confirmed that the administration of antibiotics does not reduce the incidence of infection, when comparing an experimental group with a control group.