Surgical Antibiotic Prophylaxis Practices and Occurrence of Surgical Site Infections Among Operated Patients at Dodoma Regional Referral Hospital, Tanzania

Abstract

This study was conducted to determine association between perioperative antibiotic prophylaxis practices and occurrence of surgical site infections at Dodoma Regional Referral Hospital in Tanzania. Surgical site infections (SSIs) are preventable complications following surgery, but still cause significant burden in terms of patient morbidity, mortality and increased cost of treatment. A prospective cohort study was conducted among 162 operated patients. Patients with different trends of antibiotic prophylaxis were followed up for occurrence SSIs. Analysis of data was done by SPSS version 20 program using frequency tables, chi square test, Kaplan-meier and Cox regression methods. Significance level of < 0.05 was taken to establish associations between variables. It was found that, 60.5% of patients received preoperative antibiotic prophylaxis, the overall surgical site infections rate was 14.8%. There was no significant difference in occurrence of surgical site infections between patients who received and those who did not receive preoperative antibiotic prophylaxis (p=0.88). The study concluded that SSIs are significant complications. Perioperative antibiotic prophylaxis is commonly practiced. Establishment of local protocol on antibiotic prophylaxis and adherence to infection prevention can improve the prevailing situation.