• Suada Filekovic Ribaric, Matjaz Turel, Rihard Knafelj, Vojka Gorjup, Rade Stanic, Primoz Gradisek, Ognjen Cerovic, Tomislav Mirkovic, and Marko Noc.
• Center for Intensive Therapy, Department of Anesthesiology and Intensive therapy, University Medical Center, Zaloska 7, 1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia.
• Resuscitation. 2017 Feb 1; 111: 103-109.

AimTo investigate benefits of prophylactic antibiotics in comatose survivors of out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA).MethodsPatients without evidence of tracheobronchial aspiration on admission bronchoscopy were randomized to prophylactic Amoxicillin-Clavulanic acid 1.2g every 8h (P) or clinically-driven antibiotics (C) administered if signs of infection developed during initial 7days of intensive care unit (ICU) stay.ResultsAmong 83 patients enrolled between September 2013 and February 2015, tracheobronchial aspiration was documented in 23 (28%). Accordingly, 60 patients were randomized. Percentage of patients on antibiotics between days 1-5 was significantly greater in P group. White blood count, C-reactive protein, procalcitonin (PCT) and CD 64 significantly increased during the postresuscitation phase. Except for lower CRP and PCT in group P on day 6 (p<0.05), there was no significant differences. Mini BAL on day 3 was less often positive in group P (7% vs. 42%; p<0.01). There was no significant difference in other microbiological samples and X-ray signs of pneumonia cumulatively documented in 50% in both groups. Use of vasopressors/inotropes (93% in both groups), duration of mechanical ventilation (5.4±3.7 vs. 5.2±3.1 days), tracheal intubation (6.5±4.6 vs. 5.9±4.3 days), ICU stay (7.7±5.2 vs. 6.9±4.5 days), survival (73% vs. 73%) and survival with good neurological outcome (50% vs. 40%) were also comparable between P and C groups.ConclusionBronchoscopy on admission documented tracheobronchial aspiration in 28% of comatose survivors of OHCA. In the absence of aspiration, prophylactic antibiotics did not significantly alter systemic inflammatory response, postresuscitation pneumonia, ICU treatment and outcome (ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT02899507).Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

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