Planning an Intensive Care Unit

Prophylactic antibiotics in intensive therapy: Experience in a cardiac surgical unit

“…Efforts to reduce the infection risk have been concerned with the design of the units and the layout of bed areas so as to minimize the transmission of infection by staff and equipment, and with the prophylactic use of antibiotics. Desirable criteria governing the design of intensive care areas have been defined (British Medical Association, 1967;Fitzwater, 1967;Douglas, 1970), but controversy still exists concerning the value of prophylactic antibiotics. The establishment of an effective blood-level of antibiotic activity would seem at f m t sight to be likely to inhibit the establishment of infection, and on this assumption it has been common practice to administer antibiotics prophylactically to patients considered to be at risk from bacterial invasion.…”