by Hannah Joy on
March 17, 2021 at 10:24 PM
Cefazolin, a common antibiotic can be given to most of the patients who self-report a penicillin allergy because dual allergy to both penicillin and cefazolin was just 0.7%, reveals a new study.
The study was conducted by Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH), the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus and the University of Porto in Portugal.
The researchers reported in JAMA Surgery that the frequency of allergies to both penicillins and cefazolin was so small that most patients should receive cefazolin regardless of their allergy history.
"Under current practice, the roughly 10% of U.S. patients reporting a penicillin allergy are less likely to receive cefazolin at the time of surgery and more likely to receive clindamycin or vancomycin, which increases their risk of developing a surgical infection," says co-first author Kimberly Blumenthal, MD, MSc, an investigator in the Division of Rheumatology, Allergy and Immunology at MGH. "Our study found that the frequency of dual allergies to penicillin and cefazolin was so small - 0.7% - that surgeons and anesthesiologists should feel confident giving cefazolin to nearly all patients with a penicillin allergy history."