# Antibiotics prophylaxis at the time of catheter removal after radical prostatectomy: a systematic review of the literature and meta-analysis

## TL;DR

This study finds that using antibiotics after removing a urinary catheter after prostate surgery may slightly reduce infection risk.

## Contribution

The study provides new evidence on the effectiveness of antibiotic prophylaxis after catheter removal in prostatectomy patients.

## Key findings

- Antibiotic prophylaxis marginally reduced urinary tract infections after catheter removal.
- No significant effect was observed on bacteriuria rates.
- The results suggest a potential benefit of antibiotics in preventing infections post-catheter removal.

## Abstract

To conduct a systematic literature review with meta-analysis to identify whether antibiotic prophylaxis after removal of the indwelling urinary catheter reduces posterior infections.

A systematic literature review was conducted in the databases PubMed, Embase, Cochrane, Google Scholar, and Latin American and Caribbean Health Sciences Literature, using the keywords “antibiotics” AND “prostatectomy” AND “urinary catheter.”

Three articles were identified having the scope of our review, with 1,040 patients, which were subjected to our meta-analysis revealing a marginally significant decrease in the risk of urinary infection after indwelling urinary catheter removal (odds ratio–OR = 0.51; 95% confidence interval–95%CI 0.27–0.98; p = 0.04; I2 = 0%). No difference was found regarding the presence of bacteriuria (OR = 0.39; 95%CI 0.12–1.24; p = 0.11; I2 = 73%).

In our meta-analysis, there was a significant decrease in urinary tract infection with antibiotic prophylaxis after indwelling urinary catheter removal following radical prostatectomy.