Collagen tampons as aminoglycoside carriers to reduce postoperative infection rate in prosthetic repair of groin hernias

Objective: To find out whether collagen tampons treated with gentamicin wou ld prevent postoperative infections in patients operated on for groin herni as by insertion of prostheses. Setting: University hospital, Italy. Design: Prospective randomised trial. Patients: 595 patients who required prosthetic repair of a groin hernia. Interventions: All repairs were by our standard surgical technique includin g prophylactic ceftriaxone, local anaesthesia, and insertion of a polypropy lene mesh. 301 patients also had a gentamicin laced collagen tampon placed in front of the prosthetic mesh before the aponeurosis of external oblique muscle was sutured. Results: 1/301 patients in the gentamicin group (0.3%) developed a postoper ative wound infection compared with 6/294 in the control group (2.0%), (p = 0.04 Fisher exact test). Conclusions: Gentamicin-laced collagen tampons are effective in reducing th e postoperative infection rate in patients operated on for groin hernia by insertion of a prosthesis.