Surgical Site Infection in a Tertiary Care Teaching Hospital

Introduction: Surgical site infections [SSIs] are the Third most common nosocomial infections, According to the National Nosocomial Infections Surveillance, patients who are hospitalized account for 15 to 18 percent of all nosocomial infections .increased mortality and morbidity rates associated with Surgery.

Surgical wounds are divided into four categories: clean, clean-contaminated, contaminated and dirty wounds.

Materials and Methods: This was a retrospective study, done throughout for two years period, from June 2018 to May 2020 .785 patients underwent surgery in the Dept. of General Surgery in Saveetha Medical College and Hospital, Thandalam.

Were taken as part of this study. Elective surgical procedures were performed on 495 patients. And 290 were taken to the hospital for emergency treatment. An in-depth examination of these cases was conducted, taking into account the date of admission, clinical features, history, types of surgery [emergency or elective], pre-operative preparation, drain used, and its type and postoperative findings.

Results: Surgical Site Infections were found in 58 cases out of 785 surgeries. In elective clean and contaminated patients, the overall postoperative SSI rate is 4.34 percent of all cases, whereas emergency cases account for 12.41 percent. According to the research, that the most prevalent type of surgical site infection is superficial surgical site infection accounting for 72.1 percent of all SSIs in elective cases and 61.11 percent in emergency cases, and deep surgical site infection accounting for 23.25 percent of elective cases and 30.55 percent of emergency cases.

Conclusion: The most common bacteria found in elective surgical wounds are E. coli. Proteus mirabilis is the most prevalent organism isolated from emergency surgical wounds. A shift in the pre-operative period antibiotics may even diminish the occurrence. Pre-existing medical conditions like diabetes mellitus wound type, operation time, emergency procedures, and wound contamination all had a significant impact on the development of surgical site infection.