Behavior of postsurgical infection in elective surgery

Abstract

A longitudinal, descriptive and retrospective study was conducted in all the patients that underwent elective surgery and presented postsurgical infection at the general surgery department of the Arnaldo Milian Castro Provincial University Hospital from January 2009 to December 2010. The objective was to assess the behavior of postsurgical infection. A total of 42 medical histories of patients who presented postsurgical infection were reviewed. The variables age, sex, history of previous conditions, associate diseases, diagnosis, type of surgical operation, surgical approach, diagnostic means used, as well as the complications according to diagnosis and the use of antibioprophylaxis, were studied. Female sex (62%) predominated, as well as the age group between 50-59 years (35.7%). Arterial hypertension was the most frequent previous medical condition (64.2%), and being a smoker the risk factor that prevailed (52.4%). Among the surgical interventions, clean contaminated surgery represented 52.4%. The most frequent diagnosis was gallbladder lithiasis and abdominal wall hernias with 23.8% respectively. The most frequent infectious complication was the surgical wound infection (64.2%). The diagnostic means more commonly used were: the hemogram, the abdominal ultrasound and the cultivation of surgical wound secretions. The antibioprophylaxis was used in 97.6% of the surgically operated patients.

Keywords

• complicaciones postoperatorias
• infección de herida operatoria
• factores de riesgo