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Antibiotic Use and SSI in Immunocompromised Patients Undergoing Mohs

O'Donnell-Cappelli M, Mandel J, Elder A, et al.
Dermatologic Surgery (2025)

JC: January 2023

This study assessed the impact of prophylactic antibiotic use on surgical site infection (SSI) rates in immunocompromised patients undergoing Mohs micrographic surgery. The findings helped clarify when antibiotic prophylaxis may be warranted in this higher-risk population and its effect on reducing postoperative infections.

Take-Home Messages

  • •Immunocompromised patients undergoing Mohs surgery have higher baseline SSI rates, and targeted antibiotic prophylaxis may be beneficial in select cases.
  • •Routine antibiotic prophylaxis for all immunocompromised Mohs patients is not uniformly supported and should be guided by patient-specific risk factors.

Topic

Perioperative Safety

Infection prevention, antibiotics, surgical safety protocols

Abstract

Solid organ transplant recipients (SOTRs) are at increased risk of developing nonmelanoma skin cancers (NMSC), which may require treatment by Mohs micrographic surgery (MMS). Previous small-scale studies yielded conflicting findings on post-MMS complications in immunosuppressed individuals, and large-scale population-based analyses for SOTRs undergoing MMS are lacking. The authors investigate postoperative complications after MMS in SOTRs using the TriNetX database of over 106 million patient...

Literature review only. This summary is an editorial interpretation and may not reflect the complete findings of the original publication. Always refer to the full-text article for clinical decision-making.