SSIs in Italy: Prevention and Surveillance during the Last Five Years

Abstract

Surgical site infections (SSIs) are recognized as a common surgical complication, occurring in about 2%-5% of all surgical procedures. For this reason, it is the second most common nosocomial infection, representing the 19.6% of all infections observed in hospitalized patients and 38% of those observed among surgical patients. Among SSIs prevention strategies, surveillance has been proved to be very incisive. The most recent surveillance study carried out at a national level in Italy is SNICh protocol (National Surveillance System of Surgical Site Infections), which analyses data received from 127 Italian hospitals, from the 2009 to 2011 and the entire 2013. The only application of a surveillance strategy, observing the recommended prophylaxis protocols, brought to a reduction of SSIs: their incidence has been shown to be comparable to European or American one. Furthermore, recent studies have brought strong evidence that the development of new devices, such as dressings impregnated with silver nanoparticles or triclosan-coated sutures, is strongly connected with the reduction of incidence of SSIs. In conclusion, if common preventive techniques were applied to all surgical procedures performed in the country, about 14,000 SSIs per year could be avoided with a possible savings after three years between 50 million and EUR 175 million euro.

Surveillance of surgical-site infections and antimicrobial resistance patterns in a tertiary hospital in Alexandria, Egypt

“…This might be explained by the fact the most of patients in this group were elderly, diabetic and of rural residence. SSI percentages can differ even within the same country and same surgical procedure types due to difference in the duration and intensity of surveillance [16][17][18][19][20].…”

“…Patient risk factors as smoking, medical conditions like diabetes, previous hospitalization, having remote or associated infections and ASA score 5E were found to be significantly associated with increased SSI risk. These factors are considered controllable and modifiable and can reduce SSI by proper management and patients' compliance [8,20,21]. Regarding operative risk factors, Class I: Clean was the lowest to be associated with SSI while no statistical significance was detected in patients with operations > 2 hours vs. < 2 hours.…”

“…In studies detecting SSI in orthopedics, S. aureus and CoNS are more prevalent than GNB. The reverse is true when studying SSI in general and obstetrics-gynecology surgery [16,20]. A report described HAIs in 4515 hospitals occurring in 2011-2014 found that S. aureus was the most prevalent SSI pathogen, but E. coli was more prevalent in abdominal surgery SSIs [5].…”

The Nursing Counselling among Patients Undergoing Mutilating Surgery: An Experimental Study

“…Another important aspect is the fear linked to anesthesia, to complications related to the surgical operation, e.g. infections [4][5][6], to complications in laparoscopic surgery [7,8], and to the risks of the surgery in the advanced aged patient [9]. This phase represents the moment of awareness of what is the problem.…”