FTP5.12 Incidence and Root Causes of Surgical Site Infections After Gastrointestinal Surgery at a Public Teaching Hospital in Sudan

Abstract

Abstract Aim Surgical site infections (SSIs) are common healthcare-associated infections and associated with prolonged hospital stays and additional financial burden. Patients undergoing gastrointestinal tract procedures carry a high risk of SSIs. This study aimed to determine the prevalence, associated factors, and causing microorganisms of SSIs among patients undergoing gastrointestinal tract surgeries. Methods Hospital based, cross-sectional study conducted at Soba University Hospital in Khartoum, Sudan. We included all patients from all age groups attending the gastrointestinal tract surgical unit between September-December 2017. A Chi-square test was conducted to determine the relationship between the independent categorical variables and the occurrence of SSI. The significance level for all analyses was set at p < .05. Results 80 participants were included in the study. (67.5%) did not have any chronic illness prior to the surgical operation. Most of them (46.3%) underwent large bowel surgery. 27.5% developed SSI post operatively and superficial SSI was the most common type of SSIs (81.8%). Occurrence of SSI was found to be associated with long operation time (p > .001), malignant nature of the disease (p > .001), intra-operative blood loss (p > .001), and intra-operative hypotension (p = .013). The most prevalent microorganism isolated was E coli (47.8%), followed by Enterococcus faecalis (13.0%) and combined Pseudomonas aeruginosa + E coli infection (13.0%). Conclusions The results showed a high prevalence of SSIs among patients attending the gastrointestinal tract surgical unit and the most prevalent microorganism isolated from them was E coli. Measures should be taken to reduce the magnitude of SSI by mitigating the identified associated factors.