[Electronic surveillance of nosocomial infections in head and neck surgery and stapes surgery].
BACKGROUND
Nosocomial infection is generally regarded as the most important postoperative complication. Therefore, on 28 December 2002 a German law was implemented requiring the surveillance of postoperative infections in all hospitals.


METHODS
The authors propose using stapes and thyroid surgery to monitor the infection rate in a typical Head and Neck Department. A versatile software (CISS) based on MS Word and MS Excel was developed for this purpose.


RESULTS
Postoperative infections were retrospectively analyzed for three subsequent years. The present data confirm the results of previous studies that surveillance itself is a powerful tool in reducing the postoperative infection rate.


CONCLUSIONS
The newly developed software provided an easy tool for the collection of infection data. The reported infection rates in stapes and thyroid surgery are representative of ENT clinics in Germany.
Preyer
S
S
Universitäts-Hals-Nasen-Ohren-Klinik Tübingen. serena.preyer@med.uni-tuebingen.de
Failenschmid
A
A
Holderried
M
M
Bless
D
D
D003428:Cross Infection / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000517:prevention & control; D003628:Database Management Systems; D016208:Databases, Factual; D005858:Germany / Q000453:epidemiology; D006801:Humans; D016347:Medical Records Systems, Computerized; D011159:Population Surveillance / Q000379:methods*; D012042:Registries; D018570:Risk Assessment / Q000379:methods; D012307:Risk Factors; D012984:Software; D013201:Stapes Surgery / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D013530:Surgical Wound Infection / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000517:prevention & control; D013965:Thyroidectomy / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D014584:User-Computer Interface