Surgical Site Infection

A novel therapy designed to provide prolonged and constant release of antibiotic helped prevent surgical site infections in patients who underwent abdominal surgeries, according to the manufacturer, PolyPid.

In an 8-year study, researchers found that 14.4% of bloodstream infections identified in patients within 2 weeks of hospital discharge had been acquired during hospitalization and would have been misclassified as health care-associated community onset bloodstream infections — rather than hospital-onset infections — without the inclusion of their history.

Among the most frequently read stories in infectious disease last week was Merck’s announcement that its Ebola vaccine was being considered for FDA approval.

Surveillance systems for surgical site infections, or SSIs, may exclude more than 50% of outpatient surgeries predicted to have an increased likelihood of an adverse event, based on data from more than two dozen Veterans Affairs facilities.

A survey conducted within the Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America Research Network showed that only 30.8% of hospitals have fully adopted recommendations against the use of surgical antimicrobial prophylaxis after an incision has been closed.

The incidence rate of Staphylococcus aureus infection declined nearly 50% over 7 years among veterans undergoing major surgery, according to findings from “one of the largest studies describing the long-term incidence of S. aureus in the surgical population of a national integrated health care system.”