Surgical site infection prevention

Review reports fewer deep infections with topical antibiotic powder after fracture surgery

A systematic review of five randomized trials involving 1,373 people examined topical vancomycin powder used during surgery for limb fractures. The review reported fewer fracture-related or deep surgical-site infections with the powder than with control care, particularly infections caused by gram-positive bacteria. The authors emphasized that the available trials were small and not consistently high quality.