Purpose: to determine the main factors associated with the occurrence of surgical site infection in patients submitted to total abdominal hysterectomy at the Instituto Materno ¾ Infantil de Pernambuco (iMIP). Methods: a cross-sectional study was conducted, enrolling patients submitted to total abdominal hysterectomy at IMIP who returned to postsurgical consultation for infection control, between January, 1995 and December, 1998 (n = 414). The frequency of surgical site infection (defined according to the CDC criteria, 1998) was 10% (42 cases). Prevalence risk (PR) of infection (dependent variable) and its 95% confidence interval (CI) were calculated for independent variables: age, obesity, hypertension, diabetes, malignant pathology, type of incision, duration of surgery and antibiotic prophylaxis. Multiple logistic regression analysis was used to determine adjusted risk of infection. Results: a significantly increased risk of infection was found for the following variables: age >60 years (PR = 2.39, 95% CI = 1.15-4.94), obesity (PR = 3.2, 95% CI = 1.83-5.59), duration of surgery >2 hours (PR = 2.35, 95% CI = 1.32-4.21) and diabetes (PR = 6.0, 95% CI = 3.41-10.57). On the other hand, risk of infection was significantly reduced when antibiotic prophylaxis was administered (PR = 0.38, 95% CI = 0.21-0.68). Type of incision, malignant disease and hypertension were not associated with infection. Conclusions: the factors associated with increased risk of surgical site infection after total abdominal hysterectomy at IMIP were: age >60 years, obesity, diabetes and surgical duration >2 hours. Antibiotic prophylaxis showed a protective effect with reduction of risk of infection.
Hysterectomy; Infection; Postoperative complications
