Original communicationSurgical site infections after colorectal surgery: Do risk factors vary depending on the type of infection considered?
Section snippets
Materials and methods
An institutional review board–approved retrospective review of all patients undergoing colorectal operations at a single tertiary care institution was performed. The period of time reviewed extended from January 1, 2002 to December 31, 2005. Information was gathered from a number of sources to ensure completeness of the data included in this study. A prospective database maintained by nurses in our Infection Control Program was used as the primary source of information concerning infections.
Results
A total of 428 patients met the inclusion criteria for this study. There were 417 male and 11 female patients. The median age for the cohort was 64 years (range, 26-90). Table I, Table II provide an overview of the demographic, clinical, and perioperative information for this cohort of patients.
A total of 105 SSIs were identified among these 428 patients (overall SSI rate, 24.5%). Seventy-three incisional infections (70% of all infections; 18% of those at risk) were identified and 32
Discussion
The rate of SSIs reported for colorectal surgery has varied between 5% and 26%.4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 11 Most of this variation is probably a function of multiple definitions of SSI, differing personnel performing the assessments for infection (infection control nurse vs surgeon), various time periods for assessment (14 vs 30 days), inclusion of all procedures versus selected ones, and the inclusion of infections identified after discharge. The present study attempted to address all these potential
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