Rehospitalization with surgical site infections after cardiac surgery

Objectives: This study aims to investigate rehospitalization rates in patients with surgical site infections (SSIs) after cardiac surgery. Patients and methods: This cross-sectional study included a total of 153 patients (121 males, 32 females; mean age 58.7±10.9 years; range, 18 to 80 years) who underwent open heart surgery in our cardiovascular surgery clinic and readmitted with SSI within 30 days after surgery between September 2014 and December 2014. Risk factors which were related to the patient, surgery, and hospital stay were evaluated. Results: Of the patients, 73.8% had coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG). A total of 22 patients (14.4%) were readmitted to hospital after discharge with SSI. Half of them had saphenous infections (superficial infection n=8, deep infection n=3), while the other half had sternal infections (superficial infection n=7, deep infection n=4). Nine of these patients were rehospitalized. The mean length of hospital stay was 14.2±3.8 (range, 10 to 20) days. The risk factors for SSI development included patient, surgery, and hospitalization and hospital setting. Conclusion: Our study results show that several risk factors may play a role in the development of SSIs and rehospitalization. Therefore, it is recommended that nurses consider that SSI is certainly a major complication after cardiac surgery and the risks should be minimized during procedure and after discharge.