© 2002 Journal of Medical Ethics
ORIGINAL ARTICLE
The ethics of prophylactic antibiotics for neurosurgical procedures
1 Department of Neurology, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA
2 Department of Philosophy, University of Leeds, Leeds, UK
3 Department of Bioethics, MCP-Hahnemann, Philadelphia, PA, USA
Correspondence to:
Correspondence to:
Dr S I Savitz, Department of Neurology, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, 330 Brookline Avenue, KS-406, Boston, MA 02215, USA;
ssavitz{at}caregroup.harvard.edu
The prophylactic use of antibiotics has become a routine procedure in many areas of medicine. In neurosurgery, however, there is considerable debate over their use in the prevention of postoperative infection. We pose several ethical questions about antibiotic prophylaxis in a neurosurgical setting. These questions are discussed under the following categories: responsible usage of antibiotics; the ethical dilemmas of controlled, antibiotic clinical trials, and some problems inherent in not using prophylactic antibiotics.
Keywords: Antibiotic prophylaxis; clinical trials; infection; neurosurgery
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