Wound infection in a children's hospital

Abstract

The operation wounds of 20 per cent of the children operated on in one surgical unit of a children's hospital became infected. Infection was commonest in the newly born operated on as emergencies, 50 per cent of whose wounds became infected. No connection was found between injection and nasal carriage of staphylococci. A possible source of infection in the young may be the umbilicus.

Vigilância pós-alta das infecções de sítio cirúrgico em crianças e adolescentes em um hospital universitário de Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais, Brasil

“…A incidência de infecções de sítio cirúrgico de 11,9% verificada neste trabalho situa-se abaixo de alguns achados de outros estudos, com valores que chegam até a 20% 9,12,13,14 . Sabe-se que as taxas esperadas de infecções de sítio cirúrgico variam de acordo com o potencial de contaminação da ferida operatória: 1% a 5% em feridas limpas; 3% a 11% em potencialmente contaminadas; 10% a 17% em contaminadas; e acima de 27% em infectadas, segundo o CDC 17,22 .…”

“…Sabese que a incidência de infecções de sítio cirúrgico situa-se entre 2,5% e 20% 10,11,12,13,14 . Entretanto, os estudos disponíveis variam em critérios de definição de infecções de sítio cirúrgico e em méto-dos de vigilância e de análise estatística.…”

Predicting surgical infection before the operation

“…The longer a patient stays in the hospital prior to operation, the greater the chance of postoperative wound infection [6,7]. Similarly, the risk of infection increases with the length of the operation [5,6].…”

Prospective study of antibiotic protocols for managing surgical site infections in children

“…We found that 9 of the 13 reports in the English literature included data on the incidence of infections in children [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9], with overall incidence ranging from 2.5% to 18.7% with a mean of 8.7% (Table 6). Specific incidences of infections in clean wounds ranged from 1.0% to 12.4% (mean, 4.6%), in clean-contaminated wounds from 2.9% to 24.4% (mean, 10.1%), in contaminated wounds from 7.9% to 37.0% (mean, 18.0%), and in dirty-infected wounds from 4.5% to 32.4% (mean, 16.3%).…”

“…Detailed knowledge about infections in children remains unclear, as only 13 reports have been published in the English literature [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13]. Antibiotic (Ab) protocols for the prevention of infections proposed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) are well known and widely recommended [14]; however, they do not contain sections designed for children.…”