ASSOCIATION BETWEEN NONADMINISTRATION OF SUBCONJUNCTIVAL CEFUROXIME AND POSTOPERATIVE ENDOPHTHALMITIS

Purpose: To determine whether not administering subconjunctival cefuro xime during cataract surgery is associated with postoperative endophth almitis. Setting: Southampton Eye Unit, Southampton General Hospital, England. Methods: This retrospective, case-control study comprised nin e patients who developed endophthalmitis after cataract surgery in a s ingle ophthalmic unit over a 21 month period. Ten control patients for each case were randomly chosen from patients having cataract surgery within 1 week of the endophthalmitis case. Results: None of the nine e ndophthalmitis patients received peroperative subconjunctival cefuroxi me compared with 43 of 90 control patients (47.8%) (P = 0.008). No oth er variables were found to be associated with development of endophtha lmitis in this study. Conclusion: Nonadministration of subconjunctival cefuroxime was associated with subsequent endophthalmitis. A further study to determine whether the observed association is causal is there fore warranted.