Risk factors For Site Infection After Orthopedic Surgery
According to a study published online in the International Wound Journal Zhiquan Liang, from the First Hospital of Jilin University in Changchun, China,Five risk factors are independently associated with surgical site infection among geriatric patients undergoing elective orthopedic surgery. This retrospective study (January 2014 through September 2017) was on 4,818 patients ≥60 years undergoing elective orthopedic surgery.
The researchers found that within one postoperative year, 74 patients developed surgical site infections. The overall incidence of SSI was 3.64 percent, with 0.4 percent for deep infection and 1.1 percent for superficial infection. The most common causative pathogens were Staphylococcus aureus (53.2 percent) and coagulase-negative staphylococci (23.4 percent). Nearly half of S. aureus SSIs (12 of 25) were caused by methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus. Diabetes mellitus (odds ratio [OR], 3.7), morbid obesity (OR, 2.6), tobacco smoking (OR, 4.2), surgical duration >75th percentile (OR, 1.9), and albumin <35 g/L (OR, 2.3) were independently associated with SSI.
“Preoperative active supplementation of nutrition, appropriate weight loss, smoking cessation, and optimization of the operative plan might be effective to reduce SSIs,” the authors write.