A group of Catalan researchers, led by the director of the digestive endoscopy Unit of the Digestive Pathology Service of the Hospital de Sant Pau de Barcelona – IIB Sant Pau, Carles Guarner Argente, have published an article in Gastroenterology in which, it is shown that the antibiotic prophylaxis is not necessary for ultrasound-guided endoscopic puncture in pancreatic cystic lesions.

The work consists of a clinical trial with a group of 226 patients undergoing an evaluation of cystic lesions of their pancreas that required puncture through ultrasound-guided endoscopy. The study shows that the incidence of infections is less than 1% and, besides, no significant variation between patients receiving a placebo and control group was found. Control patients were prophylaxis administrated with ciprofloxacin. These results may change the standard procedure established in these cases, avoiding the prophylactic administration of antibiotics and, possible side effects and resistance associated with these drugs.

The multicenter study has the participation of the Digestive Pathology Service of Sant Pau – IIB Sant Pau, the Autonomous University of Barcelona, ​​the Hospital Clínic – IDIBAPS, the University of Barcelona, ​​The Digestive Pathology Service of the University Hospital Mútua de Terrassa – Fundació for the Mutua Terrassa Research, the Joan XXIII Hospital of Tarragona, the Bellvitge Hospital – IDIBELL, and the Center for Biomedical Research in the Network of Hepatic and Digestive Diseases (CIBERehd).

This work has been supported by the Carlos III Health Institute, the Spanish Society of Digestive Endoscopy and the Catalan Society of Digestology.