A Bacteriological Study of Surgical Site Infections

Surgical site infections are the third most commonly reported nosocomial infection which has an adverse impact on the hospital as well as on the patient. A prospective study of 100 surgical wounds was conducted. All the wounds were examined for the presence of infection and those with infection were studied bacteriologically and their antibiotic sensitivity testing was done. The overall infection rate was 21%. The infection rate in clean surgeries was 4%, clean contaminated 12.5%, contaminated 3.3% and dirty 47.2%. Operation carried out in emergency carries high risk of development of SSI than in elective surgeries. Significant increase was seen in SSI rate with an increase in preoperative stay of patient, duration of operation and number of persons in operation theatre. Predominant organisms found were gram negative bacilli namely members of Enterobacteriaceae. High level of multidrug resistance was observed in gram negative bacterial isolates from wounds. Thus antibiotic sensitivity should be carried out for all bacterial surgical wounds before chemotherapy administered to detect drug resistant strains.