Qamaruddin Baloch, Farah Ahmed, Farhan Zaheer, Imrana Aziz.
Predicting Surgical Site Infection by `Suction Drain Tip` and 'Drain Fluid` Cultures: are they Helpful?.
Natl J Health Sci Jan ;3(2):41-5.

Introduction: The aim of the study was to check the predictability of `suction drain tip` and `drain fluid` cultures for detecting their association with possible surgical site infection. Material and Methods: This was an observational study conducted in Surgical Unit 1, Civil Hospital Karachi from February 2017 to November 2017. All post-operative patients having closed drains were included in the study excluding the patients who did not require drains in post-operative period. Cultures from drain fluid and drain tip were sent. The sensitivity, specificity, positive and negative predictive values were calculated. Result: The predictability for surgical infections in positive drain tip cultures showed Sensitivity =100% and Specificity = 61%. With Positive Predictive Value = 30.3 % and Negative Predictive Value = 100%. In drain fluid cultures the sensitivity was slightly low (85% ) with Specificity = 76.3%. Positive Predictive Value = 37.8% and Negative Predictive Value = 96.8%. Conclusion: We conclude that positive tip cultures and drain fluid can be important predictors of infection with high sensitivity but low specificity.

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