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Prophylaxis Definition
Prophylaxis refers to any medical or public health procedure whose purpose is to prevent, rather than treat or cure, disease. Vaccines are prophylactic: they are used before illness develop, either being administered to large numbers of people in order to prevent infection, or in some cases (such as the smallpox vaccine) to people who have been exposed to a disease but have not yet become ill.
Vitamin A deficiency
Postoperative wound infections are the major source of infectious morbidity in the surgical patient. The use of perioperative antibiotics has become an essential component of the standard of care in virtually all surgical procedures and has resulted in a reduced risk of postoperative infection when sound and appropriate principles of prophylaxis are applied.
- Prosthetic cardiac valves, including bioprosthetic and homograft valves
- Previous bacterial endocarditis
- Complex cyanotic congenital heart disease (eg, single ventricle states, transposition of the great arteries, tetralogy of Fallot)
- Surgically constructed systemic pulmonary shunts or conduits
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