Bacterial endophtalmitis is a disastrous postoperative complication of any intraocular surgery which can lead to blindness. With prompt endocular taps for appropiate laboratory investigations, the use of large spectrum antibiotics with good intraocular penetration, the intraocular injections of antibiotics, most of the eyes can be salvaged. Although it is unlikely that postoperative microbial endophthalmitis can be avoided entirely, all efforts should be made to reduce the incidence of this complication. Under this point of view, in addition to the available sterile techniques during the surgery, the topical and systemic antibiotic prophylaxis requires that carefully controlled studies be performed on very large numbers of patients to attain statistical validity.