The Prevalence and Etiology of Surgical Site Infections Following Gastrointestinal Tract Surgery: A Cross-Sectional Study From a Tertiary Care Hospital

Background Surgical site infection (SSI) is the most commonly occurring infection in postoperative patients. This study is conducted to evaluate the prevalence of SSI in patients following gastrointestinal tract surgery and identify the risk factors. Method A cross-sectional study was conducted at the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre (JPMC), Karachi, Pakistan, between December 2021 and May 2022. A total of 132 patients participated in the study who were at least 18 years older and had undergone the gastrointestinal surgical procedure. Patients who refused to give consent, died after the procedure, and were diagnosed with SSI after they were discharged were excluded from the study. We performed a chi-squared test. Result A total of 132 patients were included in the study, of which 63 (47.7%) were males, while 69 (52.3%) were females. SSI was more commonly found among the age group of 41-70 years with 29 (38.7%) patients. Presurgical features including hemoglobin of11 mg/dL, albumin of3.5 g/dL, blood glucose of80 mg/dL, and emergency surgery were found to be associated with the SSI having a significant p-value. Similarly, the surgical and postsurgical features significantly associated with the SSI having a significant p-value were the presence of surgical trauma, wound irrigation with normal saline, malignancy, bowel preparation, longer duration of the surgery, intraoperative hypotension, operative site, drain insertion, and the absence of a second antibiotic. Conclusion The early identification and management of the demographical, presurgical, surgical, and postsurgical risk factors can help reduce the incidence of SSIs. Bowel preparation should be encouraged, and unnecessary delays during the surgical process leading to increased procedure time should be avoided. Extra precaution needs to be provided for the patients highly susceptible to SSIs.