BACKGROUND: The aim of this study was evaluate a methodology during 23 years in a public hospital used infection for control of surgeries. METHODS: A total of 42,274 surgeries in the General Surgery Division of the Clinics Hospital of the Pernambuco Federal University (January of 1977 until December 1999) were evaluated. The data were acquired through a active search system by the infection control nurse and an epidemiological search during the postoperative period, in the outpatient clinic that centralized all surgical patients after discharge. The infection control committee concentrated its action in the prevention emphasizing precise diagnosis of infections cases; corporal cleaning, control of associated infection, minimal preoperative period, care with the shaving; rigorous asepsia and antisepsia; adequate surgical technique; notification of the infection control results and the infection/surgeon/anesthetist rates; and a rigorous antimicrobial control. RESULTS: Wound infection rate dropped from 15-20% to the actual rate of 7.7%. Urinary infection was reduced from 18.2% to 0.4%, and the respiratory infection from 22.9% to 2.7%. The mortality related to infection was reduced from 2.8% to 0.9% and the rate of wound infection in clean surgeries from 12.8% to 3.4%. In the outpatient surgeries (27,580) the wound infection was 0.4% and the global mortality was 0.007%. CONCLUSION: The authors demonstrated that infection control is not made by expensive investments and equipaments, or computadorized ambient. Infection control is made, in our view, by political decision, manpower and motivation to control the infection control problem.
Infection control; Nosocomial infection; Wound infection; Respiratory infection; Urinary infection; Surgical infection
