J. Ramanaiah 1 , M. Pavani 2 , N. Dinesh Kumar Reddy 3 , Sai Subrahmanyam
BACKGROUND Surgical wound infections continue to consume a considerable portion of healthcare finance. Even though, the complete elimination of wound infections is not possible, a reduction of the observed wound infection rate to a minimum level could have marked benefits in terms of both patient comfort and resources used. 1 MATERIALS AND METHODS The clinical study of postoperative wound infection conducted at RIMS General Hospital, Kadapa, during the period of 2013 to 2016. RESULTS In this clinical study, 150 patients were clinically diagnosed of having SSIs out of 925 patients who underwent major surgeries in Department of General Surgery, an incidence of 16.2%. Dirty type of surgeries have high incidence of SSI at 63.6%. SSI occurred more in patients who didn’t receive preoperative antibiotic within 2 hrs. prior to surgery, i.e. 32.1%. Most of the patients presented with discharge through the wound (81.3%). The most common type of discharge was purulent (52.5%). CONCLUSION Preoperative preparation <24 hrs., preoperative bathing and preoperative antibiotic within 2 hrs. before surgery help in reducing surgical site infections. Early diagnosis of SSI and prompt management by isolation of organism causing SSI using sensitive antibiotics and regular dressing help in reducing morbidity for the patients.
