DOI: 10.36347/sjams.2018.v06i07.033

Pages: 2798-2802

Surgical site infection (SSI) is the most common source of preventable morbidity and mortality. Adverse outcomes include tissue destruction, prolonged hospital stay, financial burden and death. Minimizing SSI is a top priority for surgeons and hospitals to ensure safest environment for patients undergoing surgery. To study the determinants of postoperative SSI- microbial pathogenecity, host defenses, environment and surgical technique. This is a prospective study of 50 cases of postoperative wound infection after randomly studying 316 patients admitted at Bapuji Hospital and Chigateri District Hospital, Davangere. The incidence of postoperative SSI in this study was 15.58% and the commonest organism isolated was Escherichia Coli and Pseudomonas. The most sensitive antibiotic was cefotaxime, amikacin, streptomycin and doxycycline. Prophylactic single dose parenteral antibiotic administered within 2 hours before incision was found to be sufficient in clean cases. Incidence of postoperative wound infection was found to be increased in patients with added risk factors like malnutrition, anaemia and diabetes. Length of hospital stay prior to surgery, duration of surgery and postoperative soakage of dressing showed an increase in incidence of wound infection. The clean, clean-contaminated, contaminated and dirty wound classifications provided by CDC was found to be a good predictor of the susceptibility of wound to infection. Open drains were more prone to wound infection than closed drains.