Surgical Site Infection (SSI) Predominance and Causative Factors Association after Caesarean Section at Asella Teaching and Referral Hospital, Ethiopia

Caesarean Section (CS) is the most commonly performed major obstetrical procedure, accounting for 15% of all deliveries globally. Surgical Site Infection (SSI) is one of the most prevalent infectious complications following CS. This state of health increases maternal morbidity and mortality, as well as hospitalization length and hospital expenses. The goal of this study was to ascertain the prevalence of SSI and the factors that contribute in mothers who had CS at Asella Teaching and Referral Hospital (ATRH). From December 2020 to January 2021, an institution-based retrospective cross-sectional study (CSS) was carried out at ATRH. The data were collected from the case records of the mothers who underwent CS by systematic random sampling technique. The collected data was exported to Epi-info version 7 for cleaning and exported to SPSS for further data analysis process. Descriptive and inferential statistics were applied. To identify factors associated with SSI, logistic regression was used to fit data with a P-value of < 0.05 was considered statistically significant in all cases. The prevalence of SSI was 9.9%. About 28(12%) of SSI were developed during emergency procedures, and 3(3.8%) of them were developed during elective procedures done in the hospital. In this study, SSI was significantly associated with; (pain/tenderness at operation site [AOR=310.04 95%CI (9.58 -10037.68)], arrest of labor [AOR=0.03 95%CI (0-0.49)], skin closure [AOR=46.548 95%CI (1.74-1240.25)], parity [AOR=0.08 95%CI (0.01-0.73)], duration of operation [AOR=0.31 95%CI (0.10 -0.86)] and gestational age [AOR=0.08 95%CI (0.01-0.55)]. Post-cesarean SSI was found to be high; and pain/tenderness at the operation site, arrest of labor, skin closure, parity, duration of operation and gestational age were significantly associated with SSI and this can be averted by appropriate preoperative, intraoperative and post-operative management. Surgical site infection, caesarean section, associated factors, Ethiopia