Objectives: There is no single pattern for preventive action as to the duration and type of antibiotic therapy in maxillofacial surgery. In these circumstances, it appears reasonable to set relevant standards for prophylactic procedures after such surgeries.
Methods: Retrospective analysis of bacteriological tests has been carried out as well as a susceptibility evaluation of cultured bacterial and fungal strains to antibiotics over a five-year period in subjects treated at the Cranio-Maxillo-Facial Clinic in Katowice. A total of 726 bacterial and fungal strains were cultured in 484 patients (200 women and 284 males). The age of the patients was 40.2 on average.
Results: The most frequent bacteria isolated from the patients were Gram-positive 541 (74.5%). Gram-negative bacteria were present in 177 (24.4%) cases. Fungi of the Candida genus were isolated in eight cases (1.1%).
Conclusions: The most often isolated bacteria were Streptococcus mitis and Streptococcus oralis, whose number has grown over the last two years. Empiric therapies should be based on ciprofloxacin and gentamicin. It has been observed that all the Gram-positive bacteria are becoming more resistant to all antibiotics. Ampicillin and imipenem were antibiotics with the steepest resistance reduction while vancomycin showed the lowest resistance drop.