Prospective surveillance of 1365 patients was conducted over a 2-year
period at an oncology center. The overall clean surgical wound infecti
on rate was 8.1%. There was wide variation in the infection rate among
surgical procedures in cancer patients, ranging from no infections in
incisional biopsy, breast reconstruction, and bone marrow harvesting,
to 50% in hemipelvectomy procedures. Multiple logistic regression ana
lysis showed that the duration of surgery, use of surgical drains, and
the presence of insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus were risk factors
associated with higher rates of infection. The study findings suggest
that cancer patients may be at higher risk of clean surgical wound in
fections than noncancer patients. [Infect Med 11 (4):280,282-286, 1994
]