Current infection control focus is on surgical site infection and how it can be minimised. Here, James Beaves explains how cutting-edge products from Oxoid have an important role to play. Despite appropriate pre-and post-operative decontamination practices and implementation of infection prevention and control techniques in theatre, surgical site infections (SSIs) are the second most common type of adverse event occurring in hospitalised patients.
Patients with SSIs are five times more likely to be readmitted to hospital, 60% more likely to be admitted to the intensive care unit, twice as likely to die, be hospitalised for up to seven days more, and cost three times more to treat as non- infected patients.
In the USA, the Centers for Disease Prevention and Control (CDC) estimates that more than 27 million surgical procedures are performed annually, with approximately 290,000 SSIs and 8000 patient deaths being associated with SSI infections.
Across Europe, over 29 million surgical procedures are performed each year, with around 2.6% of patients developing an SSI during their recovery in hospital. However, an estimated 40–60% of SSI cases are thought to be preventable. Recently, in the USA, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services created a list of hospital-acquired conditions that are non-reimbursable because they were deemed preventable, including a range of SSIs. Swift identification of SSI is therefore desirable to enable healthcare professionals to initiate appropriate patient care quickly and decisively, enabling better patient outcomes and reducing costs for the healthcare provider.
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