ABSTRACT

Background: One of the most common complications of craniotomy is an infection at the surgical site. The use of different antibiotics to prevent infection has been studied in various studies, and vancomycin is one of these antibiotics.

Aim: To examine the effect of topical vancomycin powder on the prevention of operative infections in craniotomy surgeries.

Methods: This is a case-control study on patients undergoing craniotomy. All patients received standard systemic prophylactic antibiotics, including one gram of intravenous cefazolin before surgery. In the case group, at the end of the operation, one gram of vancomycin powder was applied locally to ulcers. All patientswere re-examined two weeks postoperatively, and wound status was evaluated based on surgical site infection criteria. Data were analyzed by SPSS-22.

Result:Two-hundred (126 male) patient enrolled to study.There was no significant statistical difference between the two groupsbased on age and gender (P>0.05). Surgical site infection between two groups was not statistically significant (P=0.157). In women, there was no infection in the vancomycin group, whereas in the control group, 5 cases (12.5%) were observed and were statistically significant (P=0.033). Between infection with wound dehiscence, age, and wound size have positively and significantly correlated.

Conclusion: The results of this study showed that increasing age, increasing length of incision, and the occurrence of surgical wound dehiscence are more likely to be associated with wound infection. Another result was that increased wound length was associated with increased wound dehiscence.