title: Assessment of surgical site infection risk factors at Imam Reza hospital, Mashhad, Iran between 2006 and 2011.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  The present study was conducted to establish the patterns and risk factors of surgical site infections in our institution between 2006 and 2011.
  
  
  METHODS
  This was a retrospective cross-sectional study. The surgical site infection (SSI) was identified based on the presence of ICD-10-CM diagnostic code in hospital discharge records. By using a standardized data collection form predictor variables including patient characteristics, preoperative, intra-operative and postoperative data were obtained.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Ninety five patients fulfilled the inclusion criteria. The patients were admitted for various procedures including both elective (62.1%) and emergency (37.9%) operations. Colectomy (13.7%) was the leading procedure followed by umbilical herniation (12.6) and appendix perforation (12.6%). The mean age was 47.13 years with standard deviation of 19.60 years. Twenty percent were addicted to opium. Midline incision above and below the umbilicus (40%) had the highest prevalence of infection. Most patients (46.3%) had cleancontaminated wounds and 30.5% had contaminated one. The quantitative variables which were also measured include duration of surgery, pre-operative and post-operative hospital stay with the mean of 2.9±1.45 hours, 1.02±1.42 and 7.75±6.75 days respectively. The most antibiotics prescribed post-operatively were the combination of ceftriaxone and metronidazole (51.6%).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The contaminated and clean-contaminated wounds are associated with higher rate of SSIs. Also, there was a converse relation between length of surgical incision and rate of SSIs. In overall, we found type of surgery as the main risk factor in developing the SSIs.
authors.affiliation: 1. MD, Associate Professor of Surgery, Surgical Oncology Research Center, Imam Reza Hospital, Faculty of Medicine, Mashhad University of Medical Sciences, Mashhad, Iran. motiem@mums.ac.ir.
authors.forename: Mohammad Reza
authors.initials: MR
authors.lastname: Motie
authors.affiliation: 2. MD, Resident of General Surgery, Surgical Oncology Research Center, Imam Reza Hospital, Faculty of Medicine, Mashhad University of Medical Sciences, Mashhad, Iran.
authors.forename: Majid
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Ansari
authors.affiliation: 3. MD, Medical Student, Surgical Oncology Research Center, Imam Reza Hospital, Faculty of Medicine, Mashhad University of Medical Sciences, Mashhad, Iran.
authors.forename: Hamid Reza
authors.initials: HR
authors.lastname: Nasrollahi
keywords: Contamination; International Classification of Diseases; Risk factor; Surgical Wound Infection