Perioperative Antibiotics in Mild to Moderate Cholecystitis — Are They Needed?

Objective: To review the literature on perioperative antibiotic effectiveness and need for mild to moderate cholecystitis. Methods: All studies comparing a group of patients with mild to moderate acute cholecystitis who received antibiotics with a group of those who did not were included in the analysis. The primary outcome was postoperative infectious complications or SSI. Secondary outcomes included length of stay and adverse drug reactions. Standard study quality metrics were measured per meta-analysis guidelines. Results: 3 studies tested preoperative antibiotics with 794 patients, 4 studies investigated postoperative antibiotics with 953 patients, and 1 study examined 37 patients comparing both pre- and postoperative antibiotics. The pooled infectious complication rate was 9% in the intervention group and 12% in the control group, which did not reach statistical significance. The pooled rate of SSI was 5% in the intervention group compared to 8% in the control group (also not si more...