The Effect of Prophylactic Antibiotics on Surgical Site Infection Lower Limb Skin Excisions

The incidence of surgical site infection (SSI) infection in clean dermatologic surgery is very low, between 1-3%. Studies have demonstrated a much higher infection rate in skin excision surgeries in the lower limbs, up to 10% in most studies, and even 35.7% infection rate in a recent study from Australia. To our knowledge, there are no clinical trials demonstrating the efficacy of prophylactic antibiotic given prior to skin lesion excision from the lower limbs.