FREQUENCY OF SURGICAL SITE INCISION INFECTIONS AND REMEDIAL MEASURES

Abstract

Objective: To find out the frequency of surgical site incision infections, study any variations, and propose
ways to reduce this frequency. 
Study Design: Cross sectional descriptive study.
Place and Duration of Study: Orthopedic department of Military Hospital, Rawalpindi, Six months, from 
September 2012 to February 2013.
Material and Methods: A non-probability convenient sampling was done. Data of patients who underwent 
orthopedic surgery was collected using standardized data collection form and was analyzed using SPSS 21 
software. Each patient enrolled in the study was followed up for 30 days postoperatively and observed for 
development of infection.Orthopedic operations of 14 different varieties were included. Data was collected 
over six months and infections occurring during each month were measured and recorded as either 
was 
0th day. 
Superficial or deep infection was diagnosed according to the criteria laid down by CDC.
Results: A total of 175 patients were studied, out of which 41.7% (73 patients) were males and 58.3% (102 
patients) were females. The superficial surgical incision infections followed more or less uniform pattern with 
an average of 6.241% patients getting infected each month. Most of the superficial infections occurred after k 
wire procedures. Deep surgical incision infections occurred at an increased frequency during the months of 
November and December as compared to previous moths, with infection rate of 11.11% (5 out of 45 patients) 

Conclusions: Surgical site infections can occur at an increased rate in any good setup, if standard segregation 
of clean and contaminated cases is not adopted. Infections may be reduced by adopting standard operative/