Infectious Diseases and HIV Conference

Surgical site infections (SSIs) are defined as infections affecting the area of the body at or near a surgical incision within 30 days after the operation, up to a year if an implant remains in place.

SSI is one of the most common healthcare-associated infections, which can be either superficial or deep, superficial, infecting only the skin and soft tissues, versus deep, infecting tissues, organs, or implanted devices. SSIs can potentially cause an increase in time in a hospital and health care costs with severe complications; therefore, prevention and early treatment are considered important.

The etiologies of SSIs usually result from flora that invade the surgical wound at the time of or following surgery. Common pathogens include Staphylococcus aurous, Escherichia coli, and Pseudomonas aeruginosa.

All these factors factor into the likelihood of a patient getting an infection because of surgical technique, the degree of contamination of a given wound, the patient's health status, such as being diabetic, obese, or immunocompromised, and the length of time the procedure takes.

Among the common symptoms of surgical site infection, there may be irritation, redness, swelling, and warmth around the incision area. It also can bring about pain, pus or other fluid drainage, and fever.

And if the infection occurs more seriously, it may lead to sepsis, deep tissue infections, or an abscess that requires interventions through further surgeries. Reducing SSIs demands a multi-faceted approach placed before and after the time of surgery.

Before any surgical intervention, careful screening of identified risk factors among patients should take place, in addition to antisepsis of the skin and prophylactic use of antibiotics.

During surgery, strict adherence to aseptic technique should occur, with sterilization of instruments, and an effort should be made to reduce the time spent operating.

In post-surgical care, one monitors wound healing, hygiene, and involves the patient in practices on wound care.

Treatment for surgical site infections is mainly concerned with wound cleaning and drainage supplemented by appropriate antibiotics that can selectively target the causative bacteria.

Even such severe cases may require surgical debridement, which is essentially the removal of infected tissue to promote healing. Today, it is being prevented as a multidisciplinary approach, in which best practices in surgical care, infection control, and patient management dominate.

Further help for combating the prospects of such infections would come from further research on advanced wound care techniques and novel antimicrobial therapies, thus further enhancing patient safety in relation to surgery.