Evaluation of risk factors on wound infection and mortality in general surgery patients
Nurkan Törer, Tarık Zafer Nursal, Sedat Yıldırım, Akın Tarım, Kenan Çalışkan, Ali Ezer, Turgut Noyan, Gökhan Moray
Başkent Üniversitesi Adana Uygulama ve Araştırma Merkezi Genel Cerrahi Bölümü, ADANA
Abstract
Purpose: The aim of this study was to evaluate the risk factors in wound infection and mortality.
Background: Wound infection is the most common complication of general surgery patients (2-12%). Mortality rate is an important factor in assessing a clinic's success, but data interpretation should be based on evaluation of certain criteria.
Materials and Methods: Between September 2002 and October 2003, the following data collected from 2174 of patients admitted to our clinic was recorded: demographic features, hospitalisation indications, associated diseases, ASA scores, type of operation, hospital stay, intensive care unit stay and rates of wound infection and mortality.
Results: Of these patients, 42.5% were men and 57. 5% were women. Median age was 50 (14-92). Two hundred and five (9.4%) patients were hospitalised for observation, medical treatment or investigation and 1969 of them (90.6%) were operated. Wound infection rate was noted as 3.9% (n=77) among all operated patients. All evaluated parameters, except for age (p=0,635) and presence of associated diseases (p=0.631), have been found to be significantly influential in wound infection. For all the related factors, logistic regression analysis was done and only the indication of hospitalisation (p<0.0001) and the lenght of hospital stay (p<0.0001) were found to be statistically significant. Mortality rates were 1.2% and 1.4% respectively for all hospitalised patients and operated patients. All evaluated parameters but gender (p=0.322) and preoperative hospital stay (p=0.103) were found to be statistically significant. Logistic regression analysis was done for all these related parameters and only the intensive care unit stay was determined as a significant factor relating to mortality (p<0.0001).
Conclusion: In conclusion, causes of wound infection and mortality are multifactorial, and detailed scoring systems are necessary for prediction of wound infection and mortality rate.
Keywords: wound infection, mortality.