Incidence and risk factors for maternal surgical site infection after cesarean section.

Abstract

Objective: To ascertain the frequency and risk factors for post-operative surgical site infection (SSI) in cesarean section. Study Design: Cross-sectional study. Setting: Departments of Gynecology & Obstetrics and Anesthesiology, Secondary Care Hospital. Period: January to December 2017. Material & Methods: After the approval of hospital ethical committee, 337 parturient who underwent cesarean section were included in our study. Outcomes were: frequency and risk factors for post-cesarean wound infection. Data was analyzed by SPSS version 20. Qualitative data presented as frequency and percentage. Chi-square (Fishers test) used to analyze significance. P-value ≤ 0.05 taken as significant. Results: A total of 337 patients were included in our final analysis. The frequency of wound infection was 15 (4.4%). The mean age was 27.5 years ± 5.8 in our study population. There was no difference in age (p=0.781), parity (p=0.898), antenatal visits (p=0.319), referral from doctor (p=0.205), anemia (p=0.731), nature of surgery (elective or emergency LSCS) p=0.548, severity of anemia (p=0.962), blood grouping Rh-factor (p=0.531), chorioamnionitis (p=0.707), labor (p=0.955), premature rupture of membrane (p=0.427) and antepartum hemorrhage (p=0.769). 11 (3.3%) of the patients with SSI were treated conservatively while 4 (1.2%) required debridement and secondary suturing. None of our patients required referral to tertiary care hospital for treatment of SSI. Conclusion: The incidence of SSI after cesarean section was less in our study and we didn’t find maternal age, gestational age, previous cesareans delivery, antenatal visits, PROM, labor before LSCS, anemia to be associated with risk of SSI.