Safety and Efficacy of Postoperative Cefovecin
Prophylaxis in Dogs Undergoing Clean Orthopedic
Procedures

Imane BOUJGUENNA; Fatima BOUKIS; Youssef KADOURI

Case Report

Safety and Efficacy of Postoperative Cefovecin Prophylaxis in Dogs Undergoing Clean Orthopedic Procedures

Cássio Ricardo Auada Ferrigno¹*, Bianca Fiuza Monteiro², Aline Schafrum Macedo³, Mario Ferraro⁴,Vanessa Couto de Magalhaes Ferraz⁵ and Márcio Poletto Ferreira⁶

¹College of Veterinary Medicine, The University of Tennessee, College of Veterinary Medicine, Knoxville, Tennessee, USA

²Surgery, Animal Care Ipiranga Animal Hospital, Sao Paulo, Sao Paulo, Brazil

³Department of Veterinary Surgery, School of Agricultural and Veterinary Sciences, Jaboticabal, Sao Paulo, Brazil

⁴Mobile Veterinarian, Sao Paulo, Brazil

⁵Knox Veterinary Surgery

⁶Medicina Animal, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul, Porto Alegre, RS, Brazil

Corresponding Author

Received Date: June 14, 2024; Published Date: June 24, 2024

Abstract

Background: Prophylactic antibiotic therapy is a modern practice that aims to reduce the incidence of Surgical Site Infections (SSI) with special importance on surgeries with implanted medical devices, like orthopedic procedures. Cefovecin (ConveniaTM) is a unique long-acting thirdgeneration cephalosporin that can maintain peak plasma levels for up to 14 days with a single parenteral injection. Cefovecin is known to be safe and effective as a treatment for infections of the skin, urinary, genital and respiratory tracts of companion animals. It can treat canine periodontal diseases as well. This study aimed to validate the use of cefovecin as postoperative prophylactic antibiotic treatment in dogs that underwent clean orthopedic surgeries compared to oral cephalexin.

Methods: Medical records of 105 dogs that underwent clean orthopedic surgical procedures, regardless of implant application, were retrieved from a Veterinary Teaching Hospital and enrolled in the retrospective study. They were divided into groups according to the postoperative antibiotic prophylaxis: Fifty-one received a single subcutaneous cefovecin injection, and 54 received a twice-daily regimen of oral cephalexin.

Results: Mean body weight of cephalexin-treated animals was 29.25 ± 13 kg, statistically heavier (p = 0.00003138) than the cefovecin-treated dogs (13.36 ± 13.22 kg). Adverse effects occurred more frequently on cephalexin-treated animals (n = 18; p = 0.004394), mainly vomiting (n=17). Overall SSI incidence in Cefovecin and Cephalexin groups were 5.88% and 11.11%, respectively.

Conclusions: Cefovecin, administrated in a single sc dose (8 mg/kg of bw) was an effective postoperative antibiotic prophylactic treatment on 94.11% (48/51) of the clean canine orthopedic surgeries included in this study. Compared to oral cephalexin treatment, cefovecin caused fewer adverse reactions.

Keywords: Surgical site infection; orthopedic surgery; antimicrobial; cefovecin

Article Details

Citation

Cássio Ricardo Auada Ferrigno*, Bianca Fiuza Monteiro, Aline Schafrum Macedo, Mario Ferraro,Vanessa Couto de Magalhaes Ferraz and Márcio Poletto Ferreira. Safety and Efficacy of Postoperative Cefovecin Prophylaxis in Dogs Undergoing Clean Orthopedic Procedures. Arch Clin Case Stud. 4(1): 2024. ACCS.MS.ID.000579.