We would like to thank Dr McGuckin for his valuable comment on our study.1 Indeed, in his mentioned review, the authors2 state: “No studies evaluated the effectiveness of antibiotic prophylaxis before PNC [perineural catheter] placement, as it is usually performed between nerve block and the start of surgery.” This gap is filled now.
We fully agree that not every patient should receive an antibiotic prophylaxis; however, practitioners might consider it in patients in whom risk factors are prominent.3,4 In subgroups at particular risk the benefit of preventing catheter-related infections with all implicated morbidity might outweigh the costs and the potential risk of promoting antimicrobial resistances generated by single-dose antibiotic prophylaxis. We also fully agree that data linkage with longer term outcome parameters is necessary.
Competing Interests
The authors declare no competing interests.