Fique Sabir M Rafique, Muhammad Zafar Iqbal, Muhammad Razzaq Malik.
Surgical site infections in orthopedic patients; a public health dilemma.
Pak J Med Health Sci Jan ;4(2):143-8.

Background: All surgery has risk of complications. These are rare but do occur despite our best attempts to avoid them. Some risks are specific to certain operations or injuries and others are present for most orthopedic operations. Surgeons encounter the surgical site infection, which is a major public health dilemma. Objectives: To estimate the incidence and risk factors of surgical site infections in the orthopedic patients at BV Hospital Bahawalpur Study design: This was prospective observational study. The patients were interviewed for socio demographic profile. Methodology: This study was conducted in orthopaedic patients admitted in orthopaedic unit of Bahawal Victoria Hospital Bahawalpur. A structured questionnaire was used. All those patients were included in the study that were clean contaminated or infected and operated in the orthopedic OT. Their wounds were evaluated 15 days post operatively for the presence or absence of infection. Results:A total of 654 clean contaminated and infected patients were assessed after operation. When cases were grouped by wound classification, out of 654 cases. there were 529 (80.7 %) clean contaminated and 125 (19.3 %) infected patients. Out of the 654 operated patients included in the study, 163 (27.7%) developed an infection. The incidence of surgical site infections significantly depended on wound class, with a rate of 23.3 % for clean contaminated wounds, and 32.0% for infected wounds. Conclusion: The impact of surgical site infections was the mean length of postoperative stay of these patients significantly longer than for those without these infections.

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