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Study finds low rate of surgical site infection after ambulatory surgery
The risk of surgical site infection was found to be low, despite such complications being prevalent overall, according to results of a retrospective analysis of ambulatory surgical procedures.
Using the 2010 Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project State Ambulatory Surgery and State Inpatient Databases for California, Florida, Georgia. Hawaii. Missouri, Nebraska, New York and Tennessee, Pamela L. Owens, PhD, and colleagues studied the incidence of clinically significant surgical site infections (CS-SSIs) for 284,098 ambulatory surgical procedures. Rates for postsurgical acute care visit were calculated at 14 days and 30 days to determine instance of CS-SSIs.
Postsurgical acute care visits for CS-SSIs were present in 3.09 cases per 1,000 at 14 days postoperatively. At 30 days postoperatively, 4.84 visits per 1,000 cases were found. Researchers found 63.7% of CS-SSIs at 14 days postoperatively with 93.2% of those cases requiring inpatient treatment.
“Our findings suggest that earlier access to a clinician or member of the surgical team (e.g., telephone check-in prior to 2 weeks) may help identify and treat these infections early and reduce overall morbidity,” researchers concluded. —by Christian Ingram
Disclosure: The authors have no relevant financial disclosures.