A Prospective Study of Postoperative Surgical Site Infection

Abstract

Introduction: Organ specific surgical site infections are those that involve any part of the anatomy other than the incised body wall layer opened or manipulated during an operation. The proper understanding of bacteriology and mode of infections has surely reduced the incidence of wound infection, but it is not totally controlled. Hence the efforts are still concentrated upon various factors which play important role in wound infection. Materials and Methods: A total of 582 consecutive patient undergoing major and minor surgeries between March 2010 and October 2011 were included in the study. Detail history, physical examination, laboratory and radiological investigation according to Performa with special reference to any factor that could lead to postoperative infection – Age, sex, socioeconomic status, nutrition was recorded. Initial assessment of intra operative findings divided these cases into clean, clean contaminated, contaminated and dirty SSI. Result: A total of 582 patients out of these, 100 have SSI, SSI rate in our hospital was found to be 17.18% including all classes of wounds. Coagulase positive staphylococci were responsible for a majority of SSIs and mixed infections were quite common. The other microorganism responsible for SSIs were E.coli, Coagulase negative staphylococci, Pseudomonas and Proteus etc. Conclusion: The data from our study suggests a need to control modifiable risk factor responsible for development of SSI. Though we may not have a full control on the patient related factors, it is essential that the associated health conditions like Diabetes. The anemia should be controlled as far as possible before surgical procedures.

Keywords

• anemia
• dm
• malignancy
• pus culture and sensitivity
• surgical site infection