e414 13th International Congress on Infectious Diseases Abstracts, Poster Presentations duration of surgical prophylaxis for clean cases. This inappropriate antibiotic usage increases the selective pressure favoring the emergence of antimicrobial resistance and colonization of drug resistant strains. Judicious use of antibiotics is thus essential. Methods: A prospective study was carried out in 2 surgical units in Wockhardt hospital, Bangalore, India to evaluate the prescription pattern of

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... iotic prophylaxis and to determine the impact of prolonged antibiotic usage. Standardized recommendations were developed for prophylactic antibiotic usage. Cardiac and orthopedic cases undergoing clean surgical procedures were included in the study. By reviewing the infection monitoring worksheets the incidence of healthcare associated infections were detected Results: A total of 120 cases, 60 of each unit were evaluated. It was noticed that although all cases received a single pre-operative prophylactic injectable antibiotic, it was not consistent as to the timing of the dose and the repetition of another dose intra-operatively if required. For orthopedic cases antibiotic was continued for 24 hours and more than 72 hours for cardiac cases. Antibiotic chosen for cardiac cases were either a third generation cephalosporin or a combination of third generation cephalosporin with a ␤ lactamase inhibitor and for orthopedic cases only a second generation cephalosporin was used. The impact of prolonged antibiotic usage was monitored by the rate of healthcare associated infection. The rate for cardiac cases was 5% and there were no infections for orthopedic cases. Conclusion: There is need for change from these conventional practices of prolonged "prophylactic" antibiotic usage to prevent post operative infections in clean cases.