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Effective and Creative Surveillance and Reporting of Surgical Wound Infections

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2015

Allen B. Kaiser
Allen B. Kaiser*
Affiliation:
Department of Medicine, St. Thomas Hospital, and the Division of Infectious Diseases and Department of Medicine, Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, Nashville, Tennessee
*
P.O. Box 380, St. Thomas Hospital, Nashville, Tennessee 37202
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Abstract

Surgical wound infections offer a major challenge to hospital infection control programs. Surgical procedures and host factors are independent variables which markedly influence the risk of infection. Frequently used categories of surgical procedures (clean, contaminated, and infected) are inadequate to identify the special risks and problems of individual procedures.

In 1976, in conjunction with the practicing surgeons of a large, referral hospital, the Infections Control Committee instituted surveillance of selected clean surgical procedures and deep-versus-superficial wound infections. Major problems associated with the cleaning of sternal saws and the timing of the administration of prophylactic antibiotics have been detected by these methods. Conventional surveillance undoubtedly would have overlooked these problems. Effective surveillance and control of surgical wound infections requires a willingness to modify surveillance activities to meet the local needs, and a determination to include the operating surgeons in the planning of surveillance activities.

Type
Original Articles
Information
Infection Control & Hospital Epidemiology , Volume 3 , Issue 1 , February 1982 , pp. 41 - 43
Copyright
Copyright © The Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America 1982

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