Texas Children's Hospital in Houston sent physicians and reserachers to present at the American College of Surgeons National Surgical Quality Improvement Program conference.
Howard Epps, MD, academic medical director of pediatric orthopedic surgery will present a study on preoperative antibiotic use. Andrew Jea, MD, a pediatric neurosurgeon and director of the Neuro-Spine Program at Texas Children's will present on reducing pediatric spine surgery infections with Director of the Neurosurgery Clinical Research Program Sheila Ryan.
Dr. Epps' presentation addresses the need for standardizing antibiotic use preoperatively to optimize the efficacy of antibiotics. "Antibiotics are critical for preventing surgical site infections and there was a real need for standardized process for how they are administered to pediatric surgiccal patients," said Dr. Epps in a news release. After implementing the surgeons hope to lower surgical site infection rate further.
Dr. Jea's study shows a reduction in postoperative pediatric spine infections after instituting a standardized protocol. "The results will not only help improve paitent satety and the quality of care to post spine surgery patients, but will undoubtedly reduce medical cost for patients who acqurie these preventable complications," said Dr. Jea in a news release.
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