Prevention of posthysterectomy infection with a combination of preoperative vaginal and perioperative intravenous administration of metronidazole.

In a prospective double-blind study 58 patients received 1000 mg of metronidazole vaginally 12--16 hours preoperatively and 500 mg intravenously during abdominal hysterectomy while 54 patients were treated with placebo. The lack of all operative site infections in the metronidazole group in comparison with 9 infections (17%) in the placebo group (P less than 0.01) proved the combined short-term vaginal and intravenous use of metronidazole to be efficacious in the prevention of posthysterectomy infections.