Update on the epidemiology and prevention of surgical site infections

Abstract

Surgical site infections contribute significantly to the morbidity and mortality of the individual patient and impose a burden on the health care resources of the community. With the shift toward streamlined hospitalizations and ambulatory surgery, a majority of surgical site infections are being diagnosed after discharge. There are several tools available for identifying and risk stratifying patients that include the National Nosocomial Infections Surveillance system and the Study on the Efficacy of Nosocomial Infection Control index. If patients can be identified preoperatively, appropriate prophylactic measures and postdischarge surveillance can be undertaken, an underemphasized task faced by hospital systems today.

Wound Infection After Elective Colorectal Resection

“…Third, there are other known predictors or plausible factors associated with SSI that were not evaluated, including cardiac disease, smoking history, 32 Ͼ10% weight loss, 33,34 pre/postoperative anemia, 34 or glucose control. 35 Despite these limitations, we believe the present study accurately portrays the rate of incisional SSI in this patient population.…”

Surgical Site Infection in the Elderly Following Orthopaedic Surgery

“…In the current study, surgical site infection increased the mortality risk of elderly patients almost fourfold compared with that of uninfected controls. This impact of surgical site infections on mortality in the elderly is almost twice as great as its impact in the general population 29 . This impact on mortality might be attributed to the adverse effect of infection on the mobility of elderly patients, a known risk factor for mortality in the general medical population 30,31 , and possibly can be attributed to additional operations and anesthesia exposures necessitated by the infection.…”

Thickness of Subcutaneous Fat as a Strong Risk Factor for Wound Infections in Elective Colorectal Surgery: Impact of Prediction Using Preoperative CT

“…First, these data were collected retrospectively. Second, there are other known predictors or plausible factors associated with SSI that were not evaluated in this study, including cardiac disease, anemia and glucose control [27,28]. Third, in addition to BMI, this study assessed other nutritional markers such as serum albumin, prealbumin, total lymphocyte count, total cholesterol, and triglycerides.…”