Bacteremia during periodontal flap surgery, with and without prophylactic antibiotic administration: A comparative study

Objectives: Many a times in clinical periodontology, the decision whether to prescribe prophylactic antibiotics or not, is perplexing.The present study was conducted to compare the bacteremias induced during periodontal flap surgeries with and without prophylactic antibiotics.Materials and Methods:The occurrence of bacteremia during periodontal flap surgery was studied in 60 patients. On these patients, 60 quadrant wise flap surgeries were carried out without any preoperative prophylactic antibiotics and 60 surgeries carried out after prophylactic administration of amoxycillin preoperatively. A blood sample was taken from each patient at the time of maximum surgical trauma and was cultured for micro-organisms and antibiotic sensitivity.