RISK FACTORS FOR SURGICAL SITE INFECTIONS IN PEDIATRIC PATIENTS: A CROSS-SECTIONAL STUDY

OBJECTIVE: To find out the prevalence of surgical site infections (SSI) after laparotomies in the pediatric population and associated factors at Children's Hospital Lahore, Pakistan. Materials and methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted in the Department of Pediatric Surgery, University of Child Health Sciences Lahore, from February 2021 to January 2022, in which 156 children were admitted to the hospital. Fifty-two participants were separated into three subgroups based on the duration of the operation. SPSS 25 was used to investigate the associations between different variables using Chi-square tests. Data were recorded into a prepared proforma. RESULTS: Out of 156 patients, 105 (67.3%) were male and 51 (32.7%) were female, with a mean age of 44.85 ±41.3 months. Both elective and emergency abdominal laparotomy patients were included in the study. Among them, 62.2% (97 cases) of surgical procedures were elective, while 37.8 % (59 cases) were emergency procedures. According to the type of the wound, 32.1 % of all surgeries were classified as clean, while 67.9 % were classified as clean-contaminated. Surgical site infection was diagnosed in 16 children, giving an incidence rate of 10.3%. CONCLUSION: This study revealed that by reducing the average operating time to less than two hours, shortening hospital stays, providing more focused post-operative care for wounds, using drains more selectively, and correcting hemoglobin levels, we can reduce the SSI rate to a more acceptable level. Key Words: Surgical site infections, Wound infection, Prophylactic antibiotic, Emergency laparotomies, Operative time