Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-t5tsf Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-17T19:13:49.019Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Comprehensive Surveillance of Surgical Wound Infections in Outpatient and Inpatient Surgery

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 June 2016

Farrin A. Manian  and
Lynn Meyer
Farrin A. Manian*
Affiliation:
Department of Infection Control and Hospital Epidemiology, St. John's Mercy Medical Center, St. Louis, Missouri
Lynn Meyer
Affiliation:
Department of Infection Control and Hospital Epidemiology, St. John's Mercy Medical Center, St. Louis, Missouri
*
St. John's Mercy Medical Center, 621 S. New Ballas Road, St Louis, MO 63141
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

A surgeon-specific computer-generated monthly questionnaire was used to improve surveillance of surgical wound infections in outpatients as well as inpatients following discharge. From July 1988 through June 1989, 20,536 surgical procedures were performed at our medical center, of which 53% were for outpatients. The total wound infection rate was 0.63%: 0.13% in outpatients and 1.2% in inpatients (p<.005). Of the infected wounds, 20% were reported by the survey alone and would have gone undetected by conventional surveillance methods (71.4% of outpatient and 13.8% of inpatient wound infections). As a whole, clean and clean-contaminated wounds in outpatients were much less likely to become infected than those in inpatients. Wound cultures were not obtained in 85% of infections reported by the survey alone, and were less likely to be obtained in outpatients. The average time spent by the infection control department on the survey was approximately two hours per week.

Type
Original Articles
Information
Infection Control & Hospital Epidemiology , Volume 11 , Issue 10 , October 1990 , pp. 515 - 520
Copyright
Copyright © The Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America 1990 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1. Cruse, PJE. Wound infections: epidemiology and clinical characteristics In: Howard, RJ, Simmons, RL, eds. Surgical Infectious Diseases. Norwalk, Conn: Appleton and Lange; 1988:319–329.Google Scholar
2. Garner, JS, Jarvis, WR, Emori, TG, Horan, TC, Hughes, JM. CDC definitions for nosocomial infections, 1988. Am J Infect Control. 1988;16:128–140.10.1016/0196-6553(88)90053-3CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
3. Condon, RE, Haley, RW, Lee, JT, Meakins, JL. Does infection control control infection? Arch Surg. 1988;123:250–256.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
4. Haley, R, Culver, DH, White, JW, et al. The efficacy of infection surveillance and control programs in preventing nosocomial infections in U.S. hospitals. Am J Epidemiol. 1985;121:182–205.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
5. Haley, RW. Surveillance by objective: a new priority-directed approach to the control of nosocomial infections. Am J Infect Control. 1985;13:78–89.10.1016/0196-6553(85)90085-9CrossRefGoogle Scholar
6. Olson, M, O'Connor, M. Schwartz, ML. Surgical wound infections. A 5-year study of 20,193 wounds at the Minneapolis VA medical center. Ann Surg. 1984:199:253–259.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
7. Cruse, PJE, Foord, R. The epidemiology of wound infection. A 10-year prospective study of 62,939 wounds. Surg Clin North Am. 1980;60:27-40.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
8. Condon, RE, Schulte, WJ, Malangoni, MA, Anderson-Teschendorf, MJ. Effectiveness of a surgical wound surveillance program. Arch Surg. 1983;118:303–307.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
9. Gil-Egea, MJ, Pi-Sunyer, MT. Verdaguer, A, Sanz, F, Sitges-Serra, A, Eleizegui, LT. Surgical wound infections: prospective study of 4,468 clean wounds. Infect Control. 1987;8:277–280.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
10. Natof, HE. Complications associated with ambulatory surgery. JAMA. 1980;244:1116–1118.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
11. Huezo, CM, Destefano, F, Rubin, GL, Ory, HW. Risk of wound and pelvic infection after laparoscopic tubal sterilization: instrument disinfection versus sterilization. Obstet Gynecol. 1983;61:598–602.Google ScholarPubMed
12. Craig, CP. Infection surveillance for ambulatory surgery patients: an overview. QRE. 1983; April: 107–111.Google ScholarPubMed
13. Reimer, K, Gleed, C, Nicolle, LE. The impact of post discharge infection on surgical wound infection rates. Infect Control. 1987;8:237–240.10.1017/S0195941700066108CrossRefGoogle Scholar
14. Polk, BF, Shapiro, M, Goldstein, P, Tager, IB, Gwen-White, BG, Schoenbaum, SC. Randomized clinical trial of perioperative cefazolin in preventing infection after hysterectomy. Lancet. 1980;1:437–441.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
15. Brown, RB, Bradley, S, Opitz, E, Cipriani, D, Pieczarka, R, Sands, M. Surgical wound infections documented after hospital discharge. Am J Infect Control. 1987;15:54–58.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
16. Garvey, JM, Buffenmyer, C. Rycheck, RR, Yoe, R, McVay, J, Ilager, JH. Surveillance for postoperative infections in outpatient gynecologic surgery. Infect Control. 1986;7:54–58.10.1017/S0195941700063888CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
17. Haley, RW, Culver, DH, Morgan, WM, White, JW, Emori, TG, Hooton, TM. Identifying patients at high risk of surgical wound infection. A simple multivariate index of patient susceptibility and wound contamination. Am J Epidemiol. 1985;121:206–215.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
18. Gibbs, RS. Postoperative infection surveillance. Infect Control. 1986;7:53.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
19. Stoll, P, Joseph, P. Three types of data collection aid in outpatient surveillance. Hospital Infection Control. 1987; July: 105–106.Google Scholar