Extended Oral Antibiotic Prophylaxis in Diabetic Fracture Patients

May 6, 2026 updated by: Taylor M. Yong, Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center, El Paso

Extended Oral Antibiotic Prophylaxis in Diabetic Patients With Lower Extremity Fracture: A Multicenter Pilot Randomized Controlled Trial

The goal of this clinical trial is to learn if taking an antibiotic pill for 7 days after surgery reduces the risk of wound infection in adults with poorly controlled diabetes who have surgery to fix a broken bone in the leg, ankle, or foot. It will also learn about the safety of the extended antibiotic course. The main questions it aims to answer are:

Does a 7-day antibiotic course after surgery lower the rate of wound infection within 90 days? What medical problems do participants have when taking the extended antibiotic course?

Researchers will compare a 7-day course of an oral antibiotic (cefadroxil) to standard care (no additional antibiotics after surgery) to see if the extended course reduces infections.

Participants will:

Take an antibiotic pill or receive standard care for 7 days after surgery Receive a phone call from the study team about 1 week after surgery Visit the clinic at 3 weeks, 6 weeks, and 3 months after surgery for checkups

Study Overview

Status

Recruiting

Conditions

Intervention / Treatment

Detailed Description

The purpose of this research study is to investigate whether a 7-day course of an oral, prophylactic antibiotic following surgical fixation of a lower extremity fracture effectively decreases the risk of surgical site infection in patients with poorly controlled diabetes. Patients with an uncontrolled hemoglobin A1c greater than 7.0 or a random blood glucose greater than 200 mg/dL undergoing operative fixation of a closed fracture of the distal femur, patella, tibial plateau, tibial shaft, pilon, ankle, talus, calcaneus, or other operative foot fracture are considered high-risk for surgical site infection and are the target population for this study.

Study participants will be randomized to either a 7-day course of an oral prophylactic antibiotic following surgery (cefadroxil 500 mg twice daily, or an alternative regimen based on allergy status or methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus colonization) or standard care with no additional antibiotics beyond the standard perioperative intravenous antibiotic dosing. All other standard perioperative fracture care will remain the same for both groups. Outcomes assessed will include superficial and deep surgical site infection occurring within 90 days of surgery, antibiotic-related adverse effects, and patient compliance with the extended antibiotic regimen.

Study Type

Interventional

Enrollment (Estimated)

40

Phase

  • Phase 4

Contacts and Locations

This section provides the contact details for those conducting the study, and information on where this study is being conducted.

Study Contact

Study Locations

    • California
      • Los Angeles, California, United States, 90033
    • Texas
      • El Paso, Texas, United States, 79905
        • Recruiting
        • University Medical Center of El Paso
        • Contact:
      • El Paso, Texas, United States, 79912
        • Recruiting
        • Texas Tech Health El Paso
        • Contact:

Participation Criteria

Researchers look for people who fit a certain description, called eligibility criteria. Some examples of these criteria are a person's general health condition or prior treatments.

Eligibility Criteria

Ages Eligible for Study

  • Adult
  • Older Adult

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

No

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

  • Low extremity fracture requiring surgical treatment
  • Uncontrolled diabetes (Hemoglobin A1c > 7.0 or random glucose > 200 mg/dL)
  • Age 18 years or older
  • Able to provide informed consent
  • English or Spanish speaker

Exclusion Criteria:

  • Known allergy to prescribed antibiotic and pre-determined alternatives
  • Open fractures
  • Current infection requiring antibiotic treatment
  • Immunocompromised status (chemotherapy, immunosuppressant medications)
  • End-stage renal disease that medication dosing cannot be adjusted for
  • Pregnant or breast-feeding
  • Unable to comply with follow-up

Study Plan

This section provides details of the study plan, including how the study is designed and what the study is measuring.

How is the study designed?

Design Details

  • Primary Purpose: Prevention
  • Allocation: Randomized
  • Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
  • Masking: None (Open Label)

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm
Intervention / Treatment
No Intervention: No extended oral antibiotic prophylaxis
No additional extended oral antibiotic prophylaxis beyond institutional perioperative protocols.
Experimental: Extended oral antibiotic prophylaxis
Extended oral antibiotic therapy in addition to institutional protocols for perioperative antibiotic therapy
Cefadroxil 500 mg, twice a day for 7 days
Other Names:
  • Duricef
Clindamycin 300 mg, three times a day for 7 days
Bactrim DS, twice a day for 7 days

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Surgical site infection
Time Frame: 90 days
Incidence of superficial infection (a wound with erythema, warmth, or drainage that is treated with oral antibiotics or wound care) and deep infection (per fracture-related infection definition).
90 days

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Antibiotic-related adverse effects
Time Frame: 90 days
Incidence of antibiotic-related adverse effects
90 days
Compliance with antibiotic regimen
Time Frame: 1 week
Number of patients completing prescribed antibiotic regimen or not
1 week

Collaborators and Investigators

This is where you will find people and organizations involved with this study.

Sponsor

Collaborators

Publications and helpful links

The person responsible for entering information about the study voluntarily provides these publications. These may be about anything related to the study.

Study record dates

These dates track the progress of study record and summary results submissions to ClinicalTrials.gov. Study records and reported results are reviewed by the National Library of Medicine (NLM) to make sure they meet specific quality control standards before being posted on the public website.

Study Major Dates

Study Start (Actual)

April 1, 2026

Primary Completion (Estimated)

December 31, 2027

Study Completion (Estimated)

December 31, 2027

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

April 24, 2026

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

April 24, 2026

First Posted (Actual)

May 1, 2026

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Actual)

May 8, 2026

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

May 6, 2026

Last Verified

May 1, 2026

More Information

Terms related to this study

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?

NO

Drug and device information, study documents

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product

Yes

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product

No

product manufactured in and exported from the U.S.

No

This information was retrieved directly from the website clinicaltrials.gov without any changes. If you have any requests to change, remove or update your study details, please contact register@clinicaltrials.gov. As soon as a change is implemented on clinicaltrials.gov, this will be updated automatically on our website as well.

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