Despite abundant evidence to the contrary, multiple and prolonged antibiotics are still used following penetrating abdominal trauma. In 515 randomized patients, Fabian et al. showed that 1 day of a second-generation cephalosporin prophylaxis was equally effective as 5 days of the same antibiotic. Cornwell et al., in a prospective randomized study of 63 high-risk patients with penetrating colon injury, found no difference in infectious morbidity between 1 and 5 days of a second-generation cephalosporin. Dellinger et al. randomized 116 patients with small or large bowel injuries to 12 hours versus 5 days of antibiotics and failed to identify any significant differences in morbidity or mortality. Velmahos et al., in a prospective study of 250 critically injured patients, found that antibiotic prophylaxis for penetrating abdominal trauma longer than 1 day did not decrease septic morbidity and was an independent risk factor for delayed resistant infection.