Post-Operative Wound Infection after Elective Abdominal Surgery in Diabetic Patients with Good Glycemic Control Versus Patients with no Diabetes; A Comparative Study

Objective: To compare the frequency of post-operative wound infection after elective abdominal surgery in controlled diabetes mellitus patients versus patients without diabetes of same age. Study design: Quasi-experimental study. Place and duration of study: Combined Military Hospital Rawalpindi, Pakistan from Apr to Dec 2022. Methodology: The quasi experimental study was conducted on 60 patients [30 with well controlled diabetes (group-A) and 30 without diabetes (group-B)]. The patients aged between 18 to 65 years of either gender, scheduled to have elective abdominal surgery were included in the study. Patients in both the groups were followed up four weeks after surgery to see the presence of post-operative wound infection. Results: Out of the 60 patients (30 with well controlled diabetes and 30 without diabetes) included in the study the mean age of patients was 34.43±8.49 years. Male patients were 40(66.70%) while remaining 20(33.30%) patients were females. There was no statistically significant difference between the two groups in terms of baseline characteristics except for baseline HbA1C% levels (p< 0.001). Frequency of post-operative wound infection was significantly higher in group-A [15(50.00%)] as compared to group-B [5(16.67%)], p=0.006. Conclusion: The frequency of developing post operative surgical site infection in patients with diabetes having good glycemic control is higher as compared to non-diabetic patients. Post-operative wound infection is a common complication after surgery. Presence of diabetes, even if well controlled increases the chances of developing post-operative wound infection.