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A major complication of abdominoperineal rectum excision for rectal or anal carcinoma is local wound infection. The main reason for this infection is that systemically administered antibiotic prophylaxis does not reach sufficiently high concentrations of antibiotic in the tissue of the sacroperineal wound. Since gentamicin-polymethylmethacrylate (PMMA) in the form of chains of beads has been confirmed as a useful tool in the treatment of local infection in bone and soft tissue surgery, we have evaluated its effect on the abdominoperineal rectum excision in a prospective, randomized trial. Forty-four patients with rectal or anal carcinoma entered the study. Only patients with stage Dukes D were excluded from the trial. Following randomized selection, the patients were treated either with local gentamicin and drainage (Group A) or drainage alone (Group B), using the Lloyd-Davies procedure. The two groups were comparable regarding age, sex, tumor stage and level, and risk factors predisposing for an infectious complication (anemia, nutritional status, blood transfusion). The postoperative mortality rate was 0% in both series. Analysis of local perineal wound healing revealed a statistically significant higher percentage of primary wound healing in Group A than in Group B (87% versus 46%; p less than 0.01). This led to a significantly shorter hospitalization period for patients in Group A (p less than 0.01). Gentamicin-PMMA chains have been demonstrated to exert a favorable effect on local wound healing and the postoperative outcome of patients with abdominoperineal rectum excision.