Study of incidence and risk factors of surgical site infections in post operative cases

Background: Surgical site infection is one of the most common post operative complications and causes significant post operative morbidity and mortality. SSI rates are reported to range from 2.5% to 41.9% globally resulting in high morbidity and mortality. Aim: This study was aimed to determine the prevalence of SSI and some determinants that can affect surgical site infection rate. Methods: This is a 2 year prospective study carried on 350 patients operated in surgery department. The various parameters studied were age of the patient, presence of comorbidities, length of preoperative hospital stay, type of surgery, duration of surgery, the wound classes and antimicrobial prophylaxis. Results: Surgical site infection rate was found to be 12.85% with higher infection rate in males and patients above 50 years of age. SSI rate is more with emergency surgeries, longer preoperative stay and longer duration of surgery. Escherichia coly is the most commonly identified organism in the culture. Conclusion: In view of the high rate of SSI this study suggests that by reducing the average operation time to less than 2 hours, the average preoperative stay to less than 10 days and with proper prophylactic antibiotic use the SSI may be reduced to a more acceptable level.