Epidemiological profile and microbiological analysis of surgical site infection in human and pet patients

Abstract

Surgical site infection (SSI) has been indicated as the third cause of nosocomial infection. The present study aimed to determine the epidemiological profile of SSI and its association with the risk factors. It is a transversal study done at the São João Batista Hospital of Viçosa-MG and at the Surgery Service of the Small Animals Veterinary Hospital of the Universidade Federal de Viçosa-MG, from September 2012 to February 2013. Global SSI rates were 0.7% at the human and 3.46% at the veterinary hospitals. At the veterinary hospital, SSI rates were not related to contamination potential, with clean procedures presenting the greater rates. As for the type of surgery, orthopedic ones are the most common in both hospital and also the ones presenting the greater SSI rates. Surgeries during more than 120 minutes were 15.25% of the total of procedures at the human hospital and are even less common in the veterinary, with 1.26%. Rate of SSI does not seem to be related to surgery duration in this classification. Bacteria isolated from surgical wounds were multi-resistant and the obtained data indicated that no criteria of antibiotic prophylaxis existed, mainly for clean surgeries. This scenario shows that the action of a commission to control nosocomial infection are extremely relevant in order to guarantee reliable data so that the quality of service may be evaluated and thus, promoting a decrease the risk of in post-operative complications.

Index Terms
Hospital-acquired infection; infection control committee.