Preoperative methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus decontamination decreased the surgical site infection rate by more than 50 percent among patients undergoing elective orthopedic surgery with hardware implantation, according to a study published in JAMA Surgery.
A prospective database of patients undergoing elective orthopedic surgery with hardware implantation was analyzed from Oct. 1, 2012, to Dec. 31, 2013. From May 2013 onwards, an intervention was implemented — during their preoperative visit, all of the patients watched an educational video about MRSA decontamination and were given chlorhexidine washcloths and oral rinse and nasal povidone-iodine solution to be used the night before and the morning of scheduled surgery. Thirty-day SSI rates were collected.
The SSI rate in the intervention group was 1.1 percent as compared to the control group, which had an SSI rate of 3.8 percent.
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