Postoperative infection rates in foot and ankle surgery: a clinical audit of Australian podiatric surgeons, January to December 2007.
BACKGROUND
Surgical site infections are one of the most common post-operative complications encountered by foot and ankle surgeons. The incidence reported in the literature varies between 0.5 and 6.5%. The results of a 12-month Australia-wide clinical audit analysing the rates of postoperative infections in association with podiatric surgery are presented.


METHODS
De-identified patient data was collected from nine podiatric surgeons Australia-wide. Infections were identified according to Australian Council on Health Care Standards (ACHS) definitions and data was entered no earlier than thirty days post procedure.


RESULTS
A total of 1339 patient admissions and 2387 surgical procedures were reported using the International Classification of Diseases (ICD-10) and Medicare Benefit Schedule (MBS) coding systems. The overall infection rate was 3.1% and the rate of infection resulting in hospital re-admission was 0.25%.


CONCLUSIONS
The benchmark results presented in this paper suggest that infection rates associated with podiatric surgery are well within accepted industry standards as stated in recent literature.
Butterworth
Paul
P
La Trobe University Podiatry Clinic, Kingsbury Drive, Bundoora, VIC 3086, Australia. butters05@yahoo.com.au
Gilheany
Mark F
MF
Tinley
Paul
P
D000842:Ankle / Q000601:surgery*; D001315:Australia / Q000453:epidemiology; D003428:Cross Infection / Q000453:epidemiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008485:Medical Audit; D008875:Middle Aged; D011032:Podiatry; D011183:Postoperative Complications / Q000453:epidemiology*; D013530:Surgical Wound Infection / Q000453:epidemiology*