Common antibiotic can safely be given to most surgery patients despite penicillin allergy

"We found that that avoidance of cefazolin based on 50-year-old data is unnecessary and, in many cases, ill-advised," says senior author Meghan Jeffres, PharmD, with the University of Colorado Skaggs School of Pharmacy. "Not only is cefazolin safe for nearly all patients with penicillin allergy, but also, studies have shown that it's well tolerated and has the appropriate spectrum of activity against organisms commonly encountered in surgical site infections."