From the patient ’s perspective , an infection delays healing , can increase time away from work or family , and can cause additional pain and complications ( eg , sepsis , long-term disabilities , death ) .
urgical site infections ( SSIs ) continue to cause significant patient harm despite many advances in Sinfection prevention .
The negative effects of SSIs on morbidity , mortality , and the cost of care has kept SSI reduction a top priority for health care organizations worldwide .
A 2011 systematic review found that approximately 55 % of SSIs in the United States may be preventable by using evidence -based guidelines .
Preventing surgical-site infections in nasal carriers of Staphylococcus aureus.
BACKGROUND Nasal carriers of Staphylococcus aureus are at increased risk for health care-associated infections with this organism . Decolonization of nasal and extranasal sites on hospital admission may reduce this risk . METHODS In a r and omized , double-blind , placebo-controlled , multicenter trial , we assessed whether rapid identification of S. aureus nasal carriers by means of a real-time polymerase-chain-reaction ( PCR ) assay , followed by treatment with mupirocin nasal ointment and chlorhexidine soap , reduces the risk of hospital-associated S. aureus infection . RESULTS From October 2005 through June 2007 , a total of 6771 patients were screened on admission . A total of 1270 nasal swabs from 1251 patients were positive for S. aureus . We enrolled 917 of these patients in the intention-to-treat analysis , of whom 808 ( 88.1 % ) underwent a surgical procedure . All the S. aureus strains identified on PCR assay were susceptible to methicillin and mupirocin . The rate of S. aureus infection was 3.4 % ( 17 of 504 patients ) in the mupirocin-chlorhexidine group , as compared with 7.7 % ( 32 of 413 patients ) in the placebo group ( relative risk of infection , 0.42 ; 95 % confidence interval [ CI ] , 0.23 to 0.75 ) . The effect of mupirocin-chlorhexidine treatment was most pronounced for deep surgical-site infections ( relative risk , 0.21 ; 95 % CI , 0.07 to 0.62 ) . There was no significant difference in all-cause in-hospital mortality between the two groups . The time to the onset of nosocomial infection was shorter in the placebo group than in the mupirocin-chlorhexidine group ( P=0.005 ) . CONCLUSIONS The number of surgical-site S. aureus infections acquired in the hospital can be reduced by rapid screening and decolonizing of nasal carriers of S. aureus on admission . ( Current Controlled Trials number , IS RCT N56186788 .
From the patient ’s perspective , an infection delays healing , can increase time away from work or family , and can cause additional pain and complications ( eg , sepsis , long-term disabilities , death ) .
urgical site infections ( SSIs ) continue to cause significant patient harm despite many advances in Sinfection prevention .
The negative effects of SSIs on morbidity , mortality , and the cost of care has kept SSI reduction a top priority for health care organizations worldwide .
A 2011 systematic review found that approximately 55 % of SSIs in the United States may be preventable by using evidence -based guidelines .