Noorudheen N. K.1 , Shafi Ahmed2
BACKGROUND Surgical site infection (SSI) is defined as the infection that develops in a surgically created wound. SSI is the most frequently reported Hospital acquired infection in lower- and middle-income countries. Management of SSI especially when caused by drug-resistant pathogens becomes expensive due to prolonged hospitalisation with added morbidity as well. Early detection, treatment and prevention of surgical infections are important. We wanted to evaluate the risk factors of surgical site infections, identify the pathogens, and study their antimicrobial susceptibility pattern. METHODS 176 post-operative patients were included in the study with the clinical profile of surgical site infections. Patients with history of diabetes mellitus, immunosuppression, obesity and those on steroids were excluded. Demographic data of the patients and the diagnostic criteria were observed. Risk factors like use of prophylactic antimicrobial agents, the type and duration of surgery, clinical evaluation of wound (considered infected if there was pus discharge or redness and swelling with fever), and laboratory data (including gram stain, culture results, identification of the bacterial isolates as well as antimicrobial susceptibility) were recorded. All the data was analysed using standard statistical methods. RESULTS Among the 176 patients, there were 102 (57.95%) male patients and 74 (42.04%) female patients. The youngest patient was 18 years old and the eldest patient was aged 64 years with a mean age of 42.45 ± 2.35 years. Patients between 28 and 57 years of age, accounted for 75/176 (42.61%) of the total patients. 176 swabs collected for culture, isolation and sensitivity tests for the organism 61/176 (34.65%) showed positive isolation. 16 / 176 (09.09%) patients had frank clinical infection requiring drainage of pus and frequent dressing. Emergency surgeries showed a significantly higher rate of infection compared to elective operations (P=0.021). The incidence of SSIs depending upon the sites of surgeries, duration and co-morbid diseases were found to be statistically significant with p values less than 0.05. CONCLUSIONS The rate of SSI was higher in females than in males. The rate of SSIs was higher in contaminated operations in females, when compared to males. This was comparable to some studies and higher than others. Bacteria cultured reflected the site of operation, with Pseudomonas aeruginosa being the most commonly isolated bacteria in the abdominal operations.
