Assessment of Prevalence of surgical site infection and associated factors following cesarean section at St. Paul’s Hospital Millennium Medical College

Abstract

Summary Background SSI is an infection related to a surgical procedure that occurs near the surgical site within 30 days following surgery (or up to 90 days following surgery where an implant is involved). Incisional SSIs are further divided into those involving only skin and subcutaneous tissues (superficial incisional SSI) and those involving deeper softer tissues of the incision (deep incisional SSI). Organ/space infections include abscess, anastomotic leak for intra-abdominal operations, and implant-associated infections.(1) Surgical site infection (SSI) is a common surgical complication following cesarean section(C/S) that increases maternal morbidity, duration of hospital stay and the cost of treatment. It is more prevalent in Sub-Saharan Countries, including Ethiopia Objective: The objective of this study is to assess the prevalence of surgical site infection and associated factors in patients who have undergone cesarean section at SPHMMC Method: Institution based cross-sectional study was conducted in SPHMMC on 226 mothers who have undergone CS from September 2022 to August 2023 E.C. Data was entered and analyzed using SPSS version 26. Bivariate and multivariate logistic regression analysis were done to identify the association between predictors and SSIs. A level of P<0.05 was considered statistically significant. Results: A total of 226 mothers were included in this study. The prevalence of SSIs was 9.7% and 18 (81.8%) developed superficial type of surgical site infection and 4 (18.2%) developed DSSI. SSIs were significantly associated with midline vertical incision (AOR: 7.979, 95% CI: 1.222, 52.102, p-value: 0.030) and blood loss more than 500ml (AOR: 41.742, 95% CI: 5.595, 311.443, p-value: 0.000) Conclusion: In this study prevalence of post-cesarean SSI was 9.7% and midline vertical incision and blood loss more than 500ml were significant predictors of SSIs.