Surveillance and control of infection in the operating theatre

Abstract

Infection in the operating theatre is the most frequent nosocomial infection amongst surgical patients; it is the cause of death of a high percentage of surgical patients and represents a significant increase in the hospital stay of these patients. A description is given of the criteria that must be met for an infection to be considered as nosocomial, and the definitions related to the different possible locations of the infections in the operating theatre that have been dictated by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Also indicated are the most frequent germs in infections in the operating theatre according to the source of contamination and the factors that can influence their appearance. These factors can depend on the patient himself, on the preparation of the patient for the operation, on the environment or on the persons present in the operating theatre during the operation, or on the surgical operation itself. The recommendations dictated by the CDC for the prevention and control of infections in the operating theatre are presented. These are distributed in groups related to the different factors that influence their appearance and each is assigned a category according to the scientific evidence on which they are based. Finally, the rate of infections presented by the CDC is given. This proceeds from an analysis of the data sent by the hospitals participating in the National Nosocomial Surveillance System (NNIS). This rate is presented by distributing the patients in different groups related to the different risk indexes for each NNIS category, to which the corresponding surgical procedures are assigned.