[Prevention of postoperative infections: patient safety subordinated to antibiotic stewardship].

A new Dutch guideline for surgical antimicrobial prophylaxis recommends preoperative treatment with mupirocin and chlorhexidine showers only in patients identified as nasal carriers of Staphylococcus aureus. Yet, preoperative screening and treatment may not be achieved in many patients, because of the infrastructural complexity of all procedures this requires. We are therefore pleading for a universal treatment approach, which is more cost-effective and precludes carriers from being missed, while monitoring the occurrence of S. aureus infections caused by mupirocin-resistant strains.