Incise Drape Adhesion and the Adherence to Principles of Surgical Site Infection Prevention

Abstract

There are few issues that can compromise a patient outcome as severely as a nosocomial infection. This complication may manifest as a mild and annoying cellulitis or as a severe and life-threatening surgical site infection. It has the potential to compromise and even take the life of any individual undergoing surgery. Although the threat of surgical site infection remains ever present, an emerging paradigm shift of surgical site infection prevention and control is evolving. In the 2001 assessment of the current state of infection in surgical procedures in the United States, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimated that 22% of all health-care-associated infections were surgical site infections. Approximately 290,000 surgical site infections occurred annually in the United States, resulting in $1 billion to $10 billion in direct and indirect medical costs. Approximately 8000 patient deaths were associated with these infections. One of the most heavily represented procedure types in the surgical site infection data was orthopaedic procedures. According to unpublished CDC data, an estimated 14 million operative procedures in the United States were reported to the National Healthcare Safety Network (NHSN) in 2002. Surgical site infections were the second most common type of health-care-associated infection, accounting for 17% of all such infections among hospitalized patients. The proportion was similar in data reported to the NHSN by hospitals in 2006 to 2008, and the overall rate of surgical site infections was 1.9%1. Nevertheless, in spite of increasing national scrutiny and public reporting of surgical site infection rates, the 1999 CDC Guideline for Prevention of Surgical Site Infection2 only …