Prophylactic Intraoperative Antibiotic Dosing in Head and Neck Surgery: Opportunities for Improvement and Future Study.

Significant opportunities exist in SCIP guideline adherence rates for intraoperative antibiotic prophylaxis. Cefazolin/metronidazole had a significantly higher rate of appropriate redosing when compared with ampicillin-sulbactam, which should be considered when choosing a prophylactic antibiotic regimen and performing antibiotic-based outcomes studies. More attention should be given to intraoperative antibiotic prophylaxis in head and neck surgery with free tissue transfer, as this presents an opportunity for quality improvement and future study heretofore not explored.