Effect of cefazolin sodium and amoxicillin sodium/clavulanate potassium on postoperative infection, pain and expression of inflammatory factors in patients undergoing orthopedic surgery

Abstract

Purpose: To investigate the comparative effect of two antibacterial treatments in orthopedic surgery. Methods: A total of 96 patients who had undergone orthopedic surgery in Department of Nosocomial Infection Management, Suzhou Hospital of Integrated Traditional Chinese and Western Medicine, Suzhou, China from January 2021 to December 2022 were retrospectively analyzed and equally divided into two groups based on the postoperative medications administered to prevent infection. The control group was treated with amoxicillin sodium/clavulanate potassium while the study group was treated with cefazolin sodium. The incidence of postoperative infection, pain score, inflammatory factors and quality of life were determined and compared between both groups. Results: The incidence of postoperative infection in the study group was lower than in the control group (p < 0.05). Prior to intervention, the visual analogue scale (VAS) scores of the two groups were similar (p > 0.05), but decreased significantly after intervention (p < 0.05), with the score of the former after intervention lower than that of the latter (p < 0.05). Prior to intervention, the inflammatory factor levels in both groups were identical (p > 0.05); however, the levels fell significantly in both groups after intervention (p < 0.05), but the levels in the study group were lower than in the control group (p < 0.05). The quality of life scores were also higher for both groups after intervention (p < 0.05), but higher for the study group than for the control group (p < 0.05). Conclusion: Cefazolin sodium is more effective than amoxicillin sodium/clavulanate potassium in preventing infection in orthopedic patients after orthopedic surgery. However, there is a need to extend this treatment strategy to other clinical sites in order to validate these findings.