Bacterial surgical site infections: prevalence, antimicrobial susceptibility patterns, and associated risk factors among patients at Bule Hora University Teaching Hospital, Southern Ethiopia

Objectives

Surgical site infections occur within 30 days of an invasive surgical procedure in the parts of the body where the surgery is performed. Therefore, this study aimed to determine the prevalence, antimicrobial susceptibility patterns, and associated risk factors of surgical site infections at Bule Hora University Teaching Hospital, Southern Ethiopia.

Methods

An institution-based cross-sectional study was conducted with 183 consecutively enrolled participants between 1 January and 30 June 2023. Microbiological identification and antimicrobial susceptibility testing of the organisms isolated from clinical samples were performed aseptically. Data were collected using a questionnaire and analysed using SPSS version 26.

Results

The overall prevalence of surgical site infections was 15.8% (95% CI, 10.9-22). The predominant isolate was Staphylococcus aureus (n = 14; 34.1%). There were 18 (43.9%) multidrug-resistant isolates. Age group >54 (adjusted odds ratio [AOR] = 4.76, 95% CI, 1.10-20.560), hospital stay ≥10 days (AOR = 2.66, 95% CI, 1.06-6.66],), operation duration ≥2 hours (AOR = 2.64, 95% CI, 1.01-6.90), clean-contaminated wound (AOR = 3.17, 95% CI, 1.21-8.30), open surgical site (AOR = 2.64, 95% CI, 1.02-6.86), and malnutrition (AOR = 4.3, 95% CI, 1.42-12.97) were significantly associated with surgical site infections.

Conclusions

The prevalence of surgical site infections and multidrug-resistant isolates is higher compared with World Health Organisation reports or previous studies. This finding emphasises the need for routine screening and antimicrobial susceptibility testing to prevent and control site infections.