Risk of surgical site infections post-surgery does not increase with the addition of operating room personnel, research presented at the most recent New York State Society of Anesthesiologists PostGraduate Assembly in Anesthesiology shows, according to a General Surgery News report.
Rochester, Minn.-based Mayo Clinic researchers analyzed the clinic's Division of Infection Control SSI database and patient intraoperative records to identify type 1 wounds from five surgical specialties — orthopedic, general surgery, spine, vascular and neurologic. The researchers identified 722 cases.
Here are five insights:
1. The study found that a higher number of intraoperative providers was not a strong risk factor for SSI.
2. After correcting for multiple factors, such as procedure duration and patient factors, the findings showed the same.
3. The study also found that orthopedic surgery procedures had the highest number of SSI cases (49.2 percent), followed by general surgery (18.9 percent), neurosurgery (12 percent), spine (11.8 percent) and vascular (8 percent).
4. For the study, researchers also divided the personnel into three groups — scrubbed, non-scrubbed and anesthesia providers.
5. There was no difference between the groups with respect to affecting SSI risk.