Incidence and risk factors for surgical site infection in general surgeries

OBJECTIVE: to estimate the incidence of surgical site infection in general surgeries at a large Brazilian hospital while identifying risk factors and prevalent microorganisms. METHOD: non-concurrent cohort study with 16,882 information of patients undergoing general surgery from 2008 to 2011. Data were analyzed by descriptive, bivariate and multivariate analysis. RESULTS: the incidence of surgical site infection was 3.4%. The risk factors associated with surgical site infection were: length of preoperative hospital stay more than 24 hours; duration of surgery in hours; wound class clean-contaminated, contaminated and dirty/infected; and ASA index classified into ASA II, III and IV/V. Staphyloccocus aureus and Escherichia coli were identified. CONCLUSION: the incidence was lower than that found in the national studies on general surgeries. These risk factors corroborate those presented by the National Nosocomial Infection Surveillance System Risk Index, by the addition of the length of preoperative hospital stay. The identification of the actual incidence of surgical site infection in general surgeries and associated risk factors may support the actions of the health team in order to minimize the complications caused by surgical site infection.