Frequency of surgical site infections after emergency laparotomy.

Abstract

Objective: To find out the frequency of surgical site infections after emergency laparotomy. Study Design: Case Series study. Setting: General Surgery Unit, Hayatabad Medical Complex, Peshawar. Period: 1^st March 2022 to 31^st August 2022. Methods: Total of 173 patients were included. Patients undergoing emergency laparotomy were included in the study and were followed postoperatively for 30 days for signs and symptoms of SSIs. Sampling technique was non probability consecutive sampling. Data analysis was done on SPSS version 23 and p value of 0.005 was considered to be significant. Results: In this study of 173 patients, the mean age was 38.6 years, with a range of 19-65 years. The majority of patients were in the 18-40 years age group (64.7%), and male patients constituted 69.4% of the sample. Regarding BMI classification, 64.2% were in the normal range, while 12.7% were obese. The most common indications for emergency exploratory laparotomy were enteric perforation (24.9%), firearm injury (16.2%), and perforated appendicitis (8.1%). Surgical site infection (SSI) occurred in 33.5% of patients. Comparing SSI rates, there was no significant difference between the 18-40 years age group (35.3%) and the 41-65 years age group (41.9%). Similarly, no significant difference was found between male (36.7%) and female (26.4%) patients. The different BMI categories did not show a significant difference in SSI rates, with rates of 36.1% (Normal), 31.2% (Overweight), and 36.4% (Obese). Conclusion: The overall frequency of SSIs after emergency laparotomy was 33.5%.