Patients undergoing an elective ventral hernia repair will be randomly assigned to receive either bolus infusion or continuous infusion of the cefazolin as the prophylactic antibiotic. The blood concentrations of unbound cefazolin would be measured in their blood samples and the levels compared within the two groups with respect to their minimal inhibitory concentration (MIC) value.
Patients who will be undergoing elective ventral hernia repair will be potential candidates for this study. Once identified, the surgical team will approach the participant for consent and inclusion in the study. On the day of surgery, the subjects will be assigned to either the Bolus Group (CB) or Continuous Infusion Group (CI) according to a randomly generated assignment procedure. During the procedure, the dose of prophylactic Cefazolin will be given an hour before surgery and will be administered in accordance to group assignment. Subjects in the CB will receive bolus infusions of Cefazolin every 4 hours till the end of surgery. Subjects in the CI group will receive an initial bolus injection of Cefazolin followed by a continuous infusion till the closure of skin incision. Blood samples will be taken during surgery at t=0, 15, 30 and 60 minutes and every hour following till the end of surgery or 6 hours (whichever comes sooner)
Study Type
INTERVENTIONAL
Allocation
RANDOMIZED
Purpose
PREVENTION
Masking
SINGLE
Subjects in the bolus infusion arm of the study will receive bolus infusions of cefazolin throughout the surgical procedure
Subjects in the continuous infusion arm of the study will receive a continuous infusion of the cefazolin throughout the surgical procedure
Difference in Area Under Curve (AUC) of Cefazolin plasma concentration and minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) in both treatment arms
After blood sample collection is completed samples will be analyzed for plasma concentrations of cefazolin. This concentration will be compared with the standard minimum inhibitory concentration of Cefazolin. It is expected that the difference between AUC and MIC in the continuous infusion group will be higher than the bolus infusion group during the first four hours of surgery.
Time frame: First four hours
Difference in AUC of plasma concentration between the two regimens for the entire duration of surgery
After blood sample collection is completed samples will be analyzed for plasma concentrations of cefazolin. This concentration will be compared with the standard minimum inhibitory concentration of Cefazolin. It is expected that the difference between AUC and MIC in the continuous infusion group will be higher than the bolus infusion group for the entire duration of surgery.
Time frame: Duration of surgery
Total dose of cefazolin administered during the surgery
Time frame: Duration of surgery
Total dose of cefazolin administered during the first 24 hours
Time frame: 24 hours after the beginning of surgery
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