Surgical site infection prevention: An analysis of compliance with good practice in a teaching hospital

Surgical teams play a critical role in reducing surgery-related risks during preoperative and intraoperative phases.

To analyse the preoperative and intraoperative practices adopted by surgical teams in surgical site infections prevention.

This was a cross-sectional study conducted during April-September 2013 in a large university hospital in Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais, Brazil. It was conducted through observation of the surgical practice during preoperative and intraoperative phases of procedures used by a gastroenterological, cardiovascular and paediatric surgical team.

A total of 100 surgeries were monitored. Hair removal was performed for 20% of the patients inside the operating room by professionals using clippers in 65% of operations. The antimicrobial agent of choice was appropriate/satisfactory in 62% of the operations and administered up to 60 min before surgical incision in 90.3% of the cases. The operating room door was kept closed in 4% of these procedures.

Some preoperative measures for surgical site infection prevention were not adhered to by the professionals who were monitored in this study. It is recommended that surgical teams undergo professional surveillance and training to highlight the necessity and importance of implementing measures to improve the quality of care provided to surgical patients.