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Validation of a Surveillance-Notification Program

Philip B. Mead, MD; Susan E. Pories, MD; Patricia Hall, RN; Pamela M. Vacek, MS; John H. Davis, Jr, MD; Richard L. Gamelli, MD

Arch Surg. 1986;121(4):458-461.

Abstract
• In an attempt to validate the observations of a previously published ten-year study of surgical wounds, we studied 8,474 wounds over an 18-month period using a protocol nearly identical to that of the previous study. Our study corroborated the following predictors of clean-wound infection: increasing duration of surgery, age less than 1 or greater than 50 years, increasing duration of preoperative hospitalization, use of drains, and shaving and emergency surgery. We failed to corroborate use of wound irrigation as a protective measure or time of preoperative shaving as a significant variable. Most importantly, we found a 42% reduction in the clean-wound infection rate during the study period (1.9% to 1.1%), adding support to the concept that a wound surveillance program with surgeon notification is both efficacious and cost-effective.

(Arch Surg 1986;121:458-461)

Author Affiliations
From the Infection Control Unit, Medical Center Hospital of Vermont (Dr Mead and Ms Hall), and the Department of Surgery (Drs Pories, Davis, and Gamelli) and Biometry Facility (Ms Vacek), University of Vermont College of Medicine, Burlington.

Footnotes
Accepted for publication Jan 3, 1986.

Read before the 66th Annual Meeting of the New England Surgical Society, Dixville Notch, NH, Oct 12, 1985.

Reprint requests to Hospital Epidemiologist, Medical Center Hospital of Vermont, Burlington, VT 05401 (Dr Mead).

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