Article explores how to reduce surgical site infections

Infection prevention strategies to reduce surgical site infections should be tailored more to the patient and less to the hospital environment, says an author of a study suggesting the majority of surgical site infections stem from bacteria acquired before the patient enters the hospital. Dustin Long, M.D., an anesthesiologist and critical care physician at Harborview Medical Center, Seattle, believes the focus on the hospital environment could explain why surgical site infections continue to persist, despite decades of work to eliminate them. Strategies should seek to improve preoperative decolonization, including greater patient adherence to preoperative bathing and nasal decolonization guidelines. Researchers should develop technologies to identify patients with strains resistant to standard surgical prophylaxis and provide them with effective antibiotics. (Health Purchasing News article, 7/23/24)