Antimicrobial prophylaxis in urology

Antimicrobial prophylaxis in surgery has proven to be effective in controlled randomized trials. Usage in Urology is known at least since the '30s although its effectiveness has only become known since 1979. METHODS: Review of literature related to surgical antibiotic prophylaxis, more specifically urological surgery, basically from 1991 to 1995, but without overlooking those papers that have become classics due to their impact. RESULTS AND CONCLUSIONS: Efficacy of antimicrobial prophylaxis in urological surgery is nowadays beyond all doubt. Usage is indicated in the presence of sterile urine and dosage must be short, in single dosis in the immediate pre-operative or within 24 hours after the procedure. However, there is a number of issues that deserve to be treated in more detail for better understanding. Those are the establishment of adequate prophylactic regimes in renal transplantation and the use of antimicrobials based on their pharmacokinetic characteristics to optimize the prophylactic purpose.