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A Study on the Incidence of Postoperative Infections and Surgical Sepsis in a University Hospital

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2015

Luigi Ortona ,
Giovanni Federico ,
Massimo Fantoni ,
Federico Pallavicini ,
Francesco Ricci  and
Andrea Antinori
Luigi Ortona
Affiliation:
Istituto di Clinica delle Malattie Infettive, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore-Facoltà di Medicina e Chirurgia, Rome, Italy
Giovanni Federico*
Affiliation:
Istituto di Clinica delle Malattie Infettive, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore-Facoltà di Medicina e Chirurgia, Rome, Italy
Massimo Fantoni
Affiliation:
Istituto di Clinica delle Malattie Infettive, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore-Facoltà di Medicina e Chirurgia, Rome, Italy
Federico Pallavicini
Affiliation:
Istituto di Clinica delle Malattie Infettive, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore-Facoltà di Medicina e Chirurgia, Rome, Italy
Francesco Ricci
Affiliation:
Istituto di Clinica delle Malattie Infettive, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore-Facoltà di Medicina e Chirurgia, Rome, Italy
Andrea Antinori
Affiliation:
Istituto di Clinica delle Malattie Infettive, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore-Facoltà di Medicina e Chirurgia, Rome, Italy
*
Instituto di Clinica delle Malattie Infettive, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore-Facoltà di Medicina e Chirurgia, Rome, Italy
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Abstract

Reported are the results of a study on the incidence of nosocomial surgical infections in ten wards of the university hospital A. Gemelli, Rome. One thousand, five hundred five patients were studied and the overall incidence of surgical infections was 8.7%. Factors that influenced infection rates included age, immunosuppressive diseases, and immunosuppressive therapy. We assessed the inutility of antibiotic prophylaxis in clean operations and its usefulness in clean operations with insertion of prostheses or other devices. The importance of the duration of preoperative hospitalization and of the length of the operation were also noted. The most frequent etiological agents proved to be Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Staphylococcus aureus, and Escherichia coli. The average hospital stay for patients with surgical infection was more than double that of patients with no infection (25.7 days v 11.7 days).

Type
Original Articles
Information
Infection Control & Hospital Epidemiology , Volume 8 , Issue 8 , August 1987 , pp. 320 - 324
Copyright
Copyright © The Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America 1987

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