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The impact of patient-reported penicillin or cephalosporin allergy on surgical site infections

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 June 2021

Jessica L. Seidelman Open the ORCID record for Jessica L. Seidelman [Opens in a new window] ,
Rebekah W. Moehring ,
David J. Weber ,
Deverick J. Anderson  and
Sarah S. Lewis
Jessica L. Seidelman*
Affiliation:
Division of Infectious Diseases and International Health, Department of Medicine, Duke University School of Medicine, Duke University, Durham, North Carolina Duke Center for Antimicrobial Stewardship and Infection Prevention, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, North Carolina
Rebekah W. Moehring
Affiliation:
Division of Infectious Diseases and International Health, Department of Medicine, Duke University School of Medicine, Duke University, Durham, North Carolina Duke Center for Antimicrobial Stewardship and Infection Prevention, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, North Carolina
David J. Weber
Affiliation:
Division of Infectious Diseases, University of North Carolina School of Medicine, Chapel Hill, North Carolina Department of Hospital Epidemiology, University of North Carolina Hospitals, Chapel Hill, North Carolina
Deverick J. Anderson
Affiliation:
Division of Infectious Diseases and International Health, Department of Medicine, Duke University School of Medicine, Duke University, Durham, North Carolina Duke Center for Antimicrobial Stewardship and Infection Prevention, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, North Carolina
Sarah S. Lewis
Affiliation:
Division of Infectious Diseases and International Health, Department of Medicine, Duke University School of Medicine, Duke University, Durham, North Carolina Duke Center for Antimicrobial Stewardship and Infection Prevention, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, North Carolina
*
Author for correspondence: Jessica Seidelman, E-mail: jessica.seidelman@duke.edu
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Abstract

Objective:

To determine the impact of a documented penicillin or cephalosporin allergy on the development of surgical site infections (SSIs).

Background:

Appropriate preoperative antibiotic prophylaxis reduces SSI risk, but documented antibiotic allergies influence the choice of prophylactic agents. Few studies have examined the relationship between a reported antibiotic allergy and risk of SSI and to what extent this relationship is modified by the antibiotic class given for prophylaxis.

Methods:

We conducted a retrospective cohort study of adult patients undergoing coronary artery bypass, craniotomy, spinal fusion, laminectomy, hip arthroplasty and knee arthroplasty at 3 hospitals from July 1, 2013, to December 31, 2017. We built a multivariable logistic regression model to calculate the adjusted odds ratio (aOR) of developing an SSI among patients with and without patient-reported penicillin or cephalosporin allergies. We also examined effect measure modification (EMM) to determine whether surgical prophylaxis affected the association between reported allergy and SSI.

Results:

We analyzed 39,972 procedures; 1,689 (4.2%) with a documented patient penicillin or cephalosporin allergy, and 374 (0.9%) resulted in an SSI. Patients with a reported penicillin or cephalosporin allergy were more likely to develop an SSI compared to patients who did not report an allergy to penicillin or cephalosporins (adjusted odds ratio, 3.26; 95% confidence interval, 2.71–3.93). Surgical prophylaxis did not have significant EMM on this association.

Conclusions:

Patients who reported a penicillin or cephalosporin allergy had higher odds of developing an SSI than nonallergic patients. However, the increase in odds is not completely mediated by the type of surgical prophylaxis. Instead, a reported allergy may be a surrogate marker for a more complicated patient population.

Type
Original Article
Information
Infection Control & Hospital Epidemiology , Volume 43 , Issue 7 , July 2022 , pp. 829 - 833
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Copyright
© The Author(s), 2021. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of The Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America

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Footnotes

PREVIOUS PRESENTATION. These data were presented at the 2019 Society for Healthcare Epidemiologists of America (SHEA) conference on April 25, 2019, in Boston, Massachusetts.

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