Background: Surgical site infections (SSIs) are a threat to patient safety. However, there are not available data on SSI rates stratified by surgical procedure (SP) in Peru.
Methods: From January 2005 to December 2010, a cohort prospective surveillance study on SSIs was conducted by the International Nosocomial Infection Control Consortium (INICC) in four hospitals in three cities of Peru. Data were recorded from hospitalized patients using the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention-National Healthcare Safety Network (CDC-NHSN) methods and definitions for SSI. Surgical procedures (SPs) were classified into 4 types, according to ICD-9 criteria.
Results: We recorded 352 SSIs, associated to 13,904 SPs (2.5%; CI, 2.3-2.8) SSI rates per type of SP were the following for this study's Peruvian hospitals, compared with rates of the INICC and CDC-NHSN reports, respectively: 2.9% for appendix surgery (vs. 2.9% vs. 1.4%); 2.8% for gallbladder surgery (vs. 2.5% vs. 0.6%); 2.2% for cesarean section (vs. 0.7% vs. 1.8%); 2.8% for vaginal hysterectomy (vs. 2.0% vs. 0.9%).
Conclusions: Our SSIs rates were higher in all of the four analyzed types of SPs compared with CDC-NHSN, whereas compared with INICC, most rates were similar. This study represents an important advance in the knowledge of SSI epidemiology in Peru that will allow us to introduce targeted interventions.