Clinical relevance of single administration of prophylactic antimicrobial agents against febrile events after removal of ureteral stents for patients with urinary diversion or reconstruction.

OBJECTIVE: To assess the efficacy of antimicrobial prophylaxis when removing ureteral stents after urinary diversion or reconstruction and to establish the most appropriate prophylactic protocol to prevent febrile events. METHODS: We retrospectively investigated the incidence of febrile events in the two studies. Study 1 consisted of 39 patients who received antimicrobial prophylaxis and 31 who did not. Study 2 included 48 patients who were given oral fluoroquinolone (FQ) and 27 who had intramuscular injection of an aminoglycoside (AG). RESULTS: In study 1, the incidence of febrile events was significantly lower in patients receiving antimicrobial prophylaxis (26.0%) than in those not receiving it (51.6%) (P = 0.025, chi(2) test). In study 2 there was a 13% incidence of febrile events, which was much lower than the incidence found in study 1. The incidence of these events was similar between the two study groups, being 13% for those receiving FQ and 15% for those receiving AG. CONCLUSIONS: Prophylactic administration of antimicrobials reduces the incidence of febrile events after removal of ureteral stents. Both FQ and the AG are equally effective in this setting.