Response From SEE Program Editor-in-Chief

Thank you for your interest in our SEE item. I appreciate your concern over the wording in our article summary. It is traditionally the role of the surgeon to prescribe preoperative antibiotics and thereby assume the responsibility of that prescription. This responsibility, however, is shared when a physician anesthesiologist administers that drug, especially in light of a potential adverse reaction such as anaphylaxis. Likewise, as perioperative physicians it is incumbent upon us to understand the implications, in this case the risk of infection, if a medication is withheld. With this item, we are enlightening our readers about the true risk of anaphylaxis versus infection when deciding to administer or hold a cephalosporin antibiotic in a penicillin-allergic patient. We could have worded our opening sentence to reflect simply the act of infusing a medication, as you suggest, but that would...