Do post‐splenectomy patients take prophylactic penicillin?

Splenectomized patients are at risk of overwhelming infection and are advised to take life‐long prophylactic oral penicillin. Compliance studies have not been published for adults in this situation. We used a standard biological assay to detect penicillin in the urine of 58 splenectomized patients. 24 (42%) patients had evidence of penicillin in their urine. Patients' sex, age, years from splenectomy and underlying diagnosis were not important factors in identifying good or poor compliance. Since 58% of patients did not take their penicillin on the day studied, we need to consider alternative strategies of antibiotic use and patient education.