Sterile operating conditions key to cutting infections

A new US study has found that skin preparation, wound hygiene and sharing data on outcomes are more important than adherence to dress codes for reducing infections following surgery.

The study, which analysed lead surgeons at 20 Texas hospitals, noted that polices on operating room attire, which had been adopted in an effort to reduce surgical site infections (SSI) rates, had few benefits and were ‘costly, time-consuming, and detrimental to provider morale’.

More important to reducing SSI rates, they argued, was proper skin preparation, wound hygiene and sharing data on outcomes.

As part of the study, the surgeons were asked to rank staff adherence to 38 practices in six categories – attire, pre-operative preparation, during-surgery protocols, antibiotics, post-operative care, and outcomes reporting. They found that attire practices had no impact on SSI rates.

Writing in the Journal of the American College of Surgeons, the report authors said: “This analysis suggests that the subset of infection control practices that focus on perioperative patient skin and wound hygiene and transparent display of SSI data, not operating room attire policies, correlated with SSI rates.”

Lead author Dr Thomas Aloia, from the University of Texas in Houston, suggested that the study findings could assist hospitals to ‘appropriately scale’ what they were going to emphasise in their attire policy and other standard operating procedures.