Prevalence and clinicopathological features of surgical site infection- experience from surgery unit of a tertiary care center

Abstract

ABSTRACT

Introduction: Surgical Site Infection can complicate the post-surgical recovery of patients in approximately 10% of general surgery cases despite adherence to standard guidelines on infection control and aseptic procedures.

Objective: To determine the prevalence of surgical site infection and its associated clinicopathological features.

Materials & Methods: This Cross-sectional descriptive study was done in Khyber Teaching Hospital for a duration of six months i.e. from 1^st October 2023 to 31^st March 2024 after obtaining ethical approval from the Institutional ethical board. Patients referred to surgical unit for surgical intervention, of both the genders and all ages were included in the study after obtaining informed consent. Wound swab samples from infected wounds were sent to Pathology department for culture sensitivity. Blood samples were sent for hematology parameters and chemistry. Quantitative data was analyzed by mean and standard deviation, while qualitative data was analyzed with frequency and percentages using SPSS 20; a p≤0.05 denoted significance.

Results: Mean age of 179 patients was 54±22.3 (Range:34-75) years. There were 40 (22.3%) male and 139 (77.7%) female patients. Only 13 (7.3%) patients had surgical site infection. Mean age of these 13 patients was 63±42.3 (Range:52-72) years with 9 (69.2%) males and 4 (30.8%) female patients. Only 6 (46%) cases had diabetes mellitus. Bacterial growth was seen only in 11 (84.6%) cases while in 2 (15.4%) cases, no growth was detected. The commonest pathogen growth detected was that of E. Coli which was seen in 3 (27%) cases, followed by Proteus, Citrobacter species, and Staphylococcus Aureus which were seen in 2 (18.2 %) cases each.

Conclusions: Occurrence of surgical site infection was low and attributed to good perioperative surgical wound care.