Hospitalization before surgery increases risk for postoperative infections

Area of Science:

• Cardiovascular Surgery
• Infectious Disease Epidemiology

Background:

• Preoperative exposure to healthcare facilities may elevate the risk of postoperative infections.
• Understanding this association is critical for patient safety in cardiac surgery.

Purpose of the Study:

• To determine if prior hospitalization increases postoperative infection rates in cardiac surgery patients.
• To identify risk factors for infection and evaluate in-hospital outcomes.

Main Methods:

• Analysis of 32,707 cardiac surgery patients (2000-2011), comparing same-day admissions with those hospitalized prior.
• Propensity-score matching used to compare composite infections (pneumonia, sepsis, SSI, UTI) and in-hospital mortality.
• Infections and mortality trends analyzed over the study period.

Main Results:

• Overall infections decreased over time (P<.0001).
• Prior hospitalization was associated with higher infection rates (8.7% vs. 6.7%, P<.0001) in matched pairs.
• In-hospital mortality was significantly higher in the prior hospitalization group (2.8% vs. 1.5%, P<.0001).

Conclusions:

• A substantial link persists between pre-surgical healthcare exposure and increased infection risk, despite temporal decreases in overall infections.
• Further research into infection control processes is essential to mitigate postoperative infections and associated morbidity.
• Strategies to minimize pre-surgical healthcare exposure may improve outcomes for cardiac surgery patients.