Surgical Site Infections Research Paper

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2. Surgical site infections
A major complication of surgery is surgical site infections who is still considered the first complication. Defined as the occurrence of infections after 30 days of the day of the surgery if no foreign object was introduced (implant) or during an interval of one year after the surgery in case of an implant. Incidence of surgical site infections varies from regions to regions. Three types of SSI exists: superficial, deep or organ. Superficial incisional SSI develops on the skin where the incision have been made producing pus. Deep incisional SSI happens when the infection occurs under the incision area in tissues surrounding the muscles resulting in discharge of pus and maybe a reopening of the incision on its own. …show more content…
Studies done have showed that patients who develops a SSI have a bigger risk of dying, getting readmitted again to the hospital and even to the intensive care department. It lays a financial heavy burden on the public health sector due to the increased hospitalization, the diagnostic and lab tests as well as the cost of the needed treatment. Some even may need another surgery like patients having a prosthetic implant that got infected. The estimated costs of treating and taking charge of surgical site infections varies between $10,443 to $25,546 and it can go to more than $90 000 per infection when the it involves a prosthetic joint implant9. 160,000 to 300,000 cases is the estimated incidence of surgical site infections per year in the United States that gives an estimated annual cost ranging from $3.5 billion to $10 billion. The cost will varies from an infection to another due to the difference in type of surgeries, the material used, the causative pathogen (bacteria) and the patient health comorbidities. The hospital length of stay increases by 9.7 days on average because of a surgical site infection10. An indirect financial impact is also noted when the patient and the family members will have a loss of earnings due to the prolonged time to recover therefore needing an absent from …show more content…
The best plan is to have a multi-faced approach that covers the time before, during and after the surgery in order to decrease exposure to pathogens mainly bacteria. The preoperative period consists of advising the patient to cease smoking (tobacco). Studies have showed that nicotine plays a role in delaying the healing of a wound, that is why it is recommended to stop consuming all tobacco products for a period of at least 30 days before the date of the surgery11. For abdominal surgery particularly those involving colon and small bowel a bowel preparation have showed to decrease rates of SSI from 25% when the surgery is considered contaminated to 5% when it is clean-contaminated11. As indicated before hyperglycemia plays a role in increasing the risk, therefore glucose levels in diabetic patients must be well controlled before and after the surgery. A study done have showed that a level of HbA1c below 7% was associated with important less surgical site infections after the surgery12. Another way helping preventing the occurrence of infections is the preoperative shower. The center of disease control (CDC) in the United States recommends patients to do it before their surgery using antiseptic products like chlorhexidine gluconate who have showed an efficacy in decreasing SSI rates 9 times lower than placebo or ordinary bar soap13. Hair removal is one of the
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