Incidence of Surgical Site Infections in Elective Abdominal Surgery

Title Incidence of Surgical Site Infection in elective Abdominal Surgery Aim To evaluate the incidence of Surgical Site Infection (SSI) and to study the different causative factors for SSI in elective abdominal surgery. Materials and methods This is a prospective study conducted in Department of General Surgery in YENEPOYA MEDICAL COLLEGE HOSPITAL Mangalore. All patients above 14 yrs admitted for elective abdominal surgery for various causes were included and patients with pre-existing infection were excluded. Injection Ceftriaxone 1 gram and Metronidazole 500milligram were given intravenous to all patients one hour before surgery and continued in post operative period. The surgical site was inspected daily for erythema, swelling, induration, local rise of temperature, pain and septic discharge and increase in body temperature from 48 hrs after surgery to eight post operative day. Results Incidence of surgical site infection in elective abdominal surgery was found to be 11.5 % in our study which compares favourably with studies of Raka L et al and Razavi SM et al. The most common organism causing wound infection was Escherichia coli. Conclusion The study shows that the incidence of SSI is similar to other studies, but there is a scope for improvement by paying more attention on to a few of the predisposing factors. SSI, elective surgery.