Prospective observational study of surgical site infections in clean and clean contaminated surgeries in a tertiary care hospital

Abstract

Introduction: Surgical Site Infections [SSIs] have plagued surgeons since time immemorial. Infection is encountered by all the surgeons; by nature of their craft, they invariably impair the first line of host defences, the cutaneous or the mucosal barrier. The entrance of microbes into the host tissues is the initial requirement for infection. Materials and Methods: This was a prospective observational study conducted at tertiary care teaching hospital over a period of two years from May 2019 to April 2021 with the approval of the hospital ethics committee. Universal sampling was employed for the study duration. List of surgeries was received from operation theatre on daily basis. From this list only clean and clean contaminated surgeries were selected. Data regarding demographic details, type of surgery performed, whether emergency or planned surgery, the duration of surgery, surgical antibiotic prophylaxis given, duration of preoperative stay, presence of co morbid conditions and the duration of post op stay was collected. Results: Total 2382 clean and clean contaminated surgeries were included in the study. Out of these 98 patients developed SSI. The incidence of SSI was 2.05%. There were 1298 (54.50%) male patients, out of which 18 (0.69%) developed SSI.