Surgical site wound infections : a microbial study

Abstract EN

Objective : SSls are a major cause of post-operative illness.

The present prospective study was undertaken to identify the risk factors, the causative organisms and their antibiotic susceptibility patterns.

Design : Between May 2006 to April 2007, 410 patients undergoing various surgical procedures admitted in the Unit I of the dept.

of general surgery at HIMS, Dehradun, India were included in the study group.

Infected wounds were studied bacteriologically.

Material and Methods : Samples such as pus swabs from the infected wound site, aspirates in sterile syringes, surgical drain tips or blood were collected as indicated.

Direct staining, aerobic culture and bacterial identification were performed followed by analysis of results.

Results : The overall infection rate observed was 7.8% among 410 patients included in the study.

A rise in SSI was observed as the degree of wound contamination increased.

The rate of infection was higher in case of emergency surgeries than in elective procedures.

Long duration of surgery and drain usage contributed significantly to SSI.

The most common isolate was E.

coli followed by Staphylococcus aureus.

A predominance of Gram negative organisms in causing infection was observed.

The isolates were resistant to commonly used antibiotics.

Conclusions : The high incidence of SSI (7.8%), especially for clean interventions (4.2%) emphasizes the importance of implementing active SSI surveillance in our surgical wards to obtain standardized incidence ratios targeting modifiable risk factors.

Emergency surgeries, duration of surgery and drain usage were a few identified risk factors.

E.

coli was the commonest organism (41%) isolated from SSI in this study.