Objective: To evaluate the effectiveness of prophylaxis antibiotic used for tension-free hernioplasty on prevention of surgical wound infection.

Materials and Methods: After having permission from the Ethical Review Board of the hospital, this randomized double-blinded placebo-controlled trial was performed from September 2010 to June 2011.  One hundred and six patients with inguinal hernias, American Society of Anesthesiologists (ASA) Class 1-2, who never had allergy to cephalosporin and aged over 18 years-old were included.  Fifty and 56 patients were allocated to the intervention and control groups, respectively.

Results: At one-week follow-up, there was no difference of infection rate among the control and intervention groups.  In other words, there was no sign of wound infection found in all of 106 patients.  All patients did well without sign of wound infection at one-month follow-up.

Conclusion: There is no clear benefit of preoperative prophylactic antibiotic for prevention of post inguinal hernioplasty wound infection.  For deep surgical site infection, a longer follow-up at one year is needed for completion of CDC criteria.