Over a period of 7 months, 50 patients underwent a trans-urethral resection of the prostate (TURP), this intervention is classified as "clear-contamined". The antibiotic prophylactic protocol, the subject of this study, was the following: cefotiam 2 g IV with the induction of anesthesia, 1 g 3 hours later and 1 g IV with the removal of the urethral catheter.
Results: there were 3 early post-operative urinary tract infections, one of these patients was symptomatic, at the time of removal of the urethral catheter. Most of these infections were due to Enterococcus faecalis bacteria. There was 4 late post-operative symptomatic urinary tract infections at days 15, 20, 50, and 120 respectively. All these late infections were due to Streptococcus faecalis. In total, there was a 10% rate of urinary tract infections in the critical 30 days period following the TURP. All the blood cultures were negative. These results lead us to conclude that the short term preventive treatment using the cefotiam, cephalosporin which has a strong prostatic tissue penetration, reduces the rate of post TURP urinary tract infections.