Frequency of Surgical Site Infection in Patients Undergoing Exploratory Laparotomy in Tertiary Care Hospital, Karachi

Background: Infection of the surgical site is one of the major unfavorable events prevailing in patients hospitalized post-surgery and is one of the dominant contributors to postoperative complications. This study aimed to determine the frequency of surgical site infection in patients undergoing emergency exploratory laparotomy at a Tertiary Care Hospital. Methods: A descriptive study was conducted at the Department of Surgery, Civil Hospital, Karachi, from February 22, 2021, to August 22, 2021, in which, after obtaining verbal consent from patients, data were collected prospectively. Using non-probability consecutive sampling, 115 patients were included who met the diagnostic criteria. Data analysis was conducted using SPSS Version 20. Qualitative variables were presented as frequencies and percentages, and quantitative data was presented as simple descriptive statistics, giving mean and standard deviation. To ascertain the impact of the effect modifiers on the outcome variable, they were controlled through stratification. After stratification chi-square test was applied, taking a p-value of ≤0.05 as significant. Results: Mean age, duration of surgery and length of hospital stays in our study was 42.98±5.35 years, 2.89±1.68 hours and 3.78±1.41 days. 60 (52.2%) were male and 55 (47.8%) were female. Out of 115 patients included in this study, 25 (21.7%) and 90 (78.3%) had and did not have surgical site infection. Conclusion: Such high frequency, even after taking maximum precautionary measurements, demonstrates that potentially alterable independent determinants for surgical site infection after abdominal surgery might be considered plausible indicators of SSI and that an appropriate course of action to prevent them needs to be considered.