PHILADELPHIA – A bundled intervention including Staphylococcus aureus screening, decolonization, and targeted perioperative prophylaxis significantly decreased the rate of complex S. aureus surgical site infections in a multicenter quasi-experimental effectiveness study of patients undergoing cardiac operations or total joint arthroplasty.
The pooled rate of complex S. aureus surgical site infections (SSIs) decreased from 0.36% following 28,218 procedures performed during the preintervention period to 0.20% after 14,316 procedures performed during the intervention period (rate ratio, 0.58), Dr. Loreen A. Herwaldt of the University of Iowa, Iowa City, reported at an annual scientific meeting on infectious diseases.
Further, the number of months with no complex S. aureus SSIs increased from 2 of 39 months (5.1%) to 8 of 22 months (36.4%) Dr. Herwaldt said, noting that the median rate and range of complex SSIs became zero by intervention month 4.
©CDC/Janice Haney Carr
Implementing a bundled intervention reduced S. aureus SSIs and could reduce patient morbidity and costs.
The decrease in SSIs was greatest for joint arthroplasties, she said at the combined annual meetings of the Infectious Diseases Society of America, the Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America, the HIV Medicine Association, and the Pediatric Infectious Diseases Society.
Subgroup analyses also demonstrated significantly lower rates of complex SSIs for scheduled vs. nonscheduled or emergent operations (rate ratio, 0.55), fully adherent vs. partially or nonadherent operations (rate ratio, 0.26), and for operations in which the surgeon (in accordance with hospital participation) implemented at least some bundle elements vs. no bundle elements (rate ratio, 0.54), she said, explaining that surgeons could opt out of the study even if a hospital was participating.
The rate of complex SSIs caused by any pathogen also was reduced (rate ratio, 0.67).
“We were very pleased to note that gram negative SSIs did not increase. The rate ratio was 0.86, and the confidence interval did cross 1 and the P value was 0.67,” she said.