North India Statesman
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Surgical Site Infection: Every year in India, an average of 15 lakh patients suffer from infection after surgery. A recent report by the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) highlights this worrying situation regarding surgical site infection (SSI), which is an infection occurring after surgery.
Actually, SSI occurs when bacteria enter the incision made during surgery and infect it. According to ICMR report, the rate of SSI infection in patients after surgery in India is 5.2% which is higher than many developed countries.
Many things came to light in the report
The report also states that the SSI rate in cases of bone and muscle related surgeries or orthopedic surgeries is 54.2%, which is very worrying. To deal with this problem, ICMR has launched SSI Surveillance Network.
It aims to help doctors across the country prevent such infections. ICMR conducted a study on surgeries of 3,090 patients in three major hospitals AIIMS Delhi, Kasturba Hospital, Manipal and Tata Memorial Hospital Mumbai.
The risk of SSI is highest in these patients.
The study showed that patients undergoing orthopedic surgery have an increased risk of SSI. Of the total patients, 161 patients (5.2%) developed SSI after surgery. Patients are at increased risk of SSI after surgery, which usually lasts 120 minutes or more than two hours.
Monitoring patients after discharge is important to identify SSI, the study said. In 66% of cases, the infection was detected after the patients left the hospital. Post-discharge surveillance helped detect 66% of SSI cases.
