ESTIMATION OF SURGICAL-WOUND INFECTION-RATES BY A SURVEILLANCE POSTDISCHARGE CONTROL PROGRAM

BACKGROUND: The decrease in the time spent in hospital of patients who have undergone surgery lessens wound observation time, and thus could underestimate the true rates of surgical wound infection (SWI), The a im of this study was to assess the use of a programme to detect SWI, b y carrying out a control 30 days after patients have been discharged f rom hospital. PATIENTS AND METHODS: A study of a prospective cohort of 2,015 patients who were operated in 6 surgical services at a general hospital, was carried out to detect the incidence of SWI. The control at one month after discharge from hospital was done through a telephon e survey using a specific questionnaire, RESULTS: SWI incidence was ob served in 134 patients (6.7%), 38% of which were detected on the month after discharge from hospital, In the postoperatory control the major SWI rates were detected in the clean procedures and in the clean-cont aminated procedures with 46% and 37%, respectively. The telephone inte rview enabled contact with 72.3% of the patients intervened, CONCLUSIO NS: The post discharge control of patients who have undergone surgery enabled the detection of more than a third of SWI cases. The telephone interview system has been effective in our study as a postdischarge m ethod of the localization of patients.