Risk factors for surgical site infection in children.
OBJECTIVE
To assess the appropriateness of using the indices developed by the Study on the Efficacy of Nosocomial Infection Control (SENIC) and the National Nosocomial Infections Surveillance (NNIS) project to determine risk factors for surgical site infection (SSI) in children and, if not appropriate, to explore the factors related to SSI in children so these factors could be used in a risk index for pediatric patients.


METHODS
Cohort study during more than 4 years.


METHODS
La Paz University Hospital, a national reference center that serves Health Area 5 of Madrid, Spain, which has approximately 500,000 inhabitants.


METHODS
Convenience sample consisting of the 3,646 children admitted for surgery who had a postsurgical stay of more than 2 days.


RESULTS
A model with 8 predictive factors (degree of surgical contamination; duration of surgery; type of surgery; use of a peripheral venous catheter, central venous catheter, or urinary catheter; number of diagnoses; and SSI exposition time) was created. Its relation to the SSI rate was better than that of the SENIC or NNIS indices. Its sensitivity, specificity, and area under the receiver-operating characteristic curve were higher than that of the SENIC index.


CONCLUSIONS
The model that we created seems to be more adequate for predicting SSI and evaluating pediatric patients' intrinsic risk than the SENIC and NNIS indices.
Casanova
Juan Francisco
JF
Department of Preventive Medicine and Public Health, Autonomous University of Madrid, Madrid, Spain. juanfrancisco.casanova@uam.es
Herruzo
Rafael
R
Diez
Jesus
J
D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D008297:Male; D011446:Prospective Studies; D012307:Risk Factors; D013030:Spain / Q000453:epidemiology; D013530:Surgical Wound Infection / Q000453:epidemiology*