title: Post-caesarean section surgical site infection: rate and risk factors.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To identify the incidence of surgical site infection (SSI) post-caesarean section, and important contributory risk factors.
  
  
  METHODS
  A retrospective analysis was conducted to identify cases with SSI, using as a population all the caesarean sections for the 6-month period from 16 March 2009-15 September 2009 performed at Waikato Hospital (n=526). Cases (n=25) were compared with randomly selected controls (n=50) to identify important risk factors.
  
  
  RESULTS
  In total, 25 of the 526 patients (5%) had a SSI post-caesarean section. Of these, 15 were revealed during the initial admission (3%), and the other 10 required hospital care post-discharge for treatment of infection (2%). The key risk factors for surgical site infection post-caesarean section identified were elevated BMI, longer duration of labour, and having an emergency procedure.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  This study has identified significant risk factors for surgical site infection post-caesarean section. Identification of these risk factors reminds obstetric staff that appropriate targeting of infection reducing strategies to women at high risk is needed.
authors.affiliation: Auckland Hospital, Auckland, New Zealand. marcusghuman@hotmail.com
authors.forename: Marcus
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Ghuman
authors.forename: Deirdre
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Rohlandt
authors.forename: Grace
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Joshy
authors.forename: Ross
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Lawrenson
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D015992:Body Mass Index; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D002585:Cesarean Section; D016009:Chi-Square Distribution; D004638:Emergency Treatment; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D015994:Incidence; D007743:Labor, Obstetric; D009520:New Zealand / Q000453:epidemiology; D011183:Postoperative Complications / Q000453:epidemiology*; D011247:Pregnancy; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D012307:Risk Factors; D018709:Statistics, Nonparametric; D013530:Surgical Wound Infection / Q000453:epidemiology*