Surgical microbiology in risk patients undergoing abdominal surgery

Introduction: incidence of surgical infection is greater among elderly pati ents undergoing surgery than among the general population, with a serious c ompromise regarding morbidity and mortality in this group of patients with increased risk. Aim of the study: to determine the microbiological features of surgical inf ections in patients over 65 years of age compared with those younger than 6 5. Patients and methods: over the past 2 years, 2,064 patients underwent surge ry in our Department. One thousand three hundred sixty seven of those patie nts (66.7%) had 65 years of age or less and 688 (33.3%) were over 65. Patie nt characteristics regarding the type of surgery (degree of contamination) and the nature and type of the condition requiring surgery are reported. On e hundred five hundred sixty two samples were submitted for microbiological study. The microbiological infectious pathogens and their characteristics were determined. The Chi-square test was used for the analysis of potential differences related to the age of the patient. Results: the rate of samples sent for microbiological study is higher among patients over 65. In addition, these patients show both quantitative and q ualitative differences in their infectious microbiological spectrum, mainly in clean-contaminated, contaminated and dirty surgical procedures. Fungal infections play a significant role in this group of patients. Conclusions: facultative gram-negative bacilli, aerobic grampositive cocci, and fungi are the main pathogens responsible of surgical infections in eld erly patients, compared to all other patients, thus requiring specific anti biotic prophylactic and therapeutic regimes.