ABSTRACT
Objectives: To determine the rate and extra-cost of surgical site infection [SSI] after cesarean section [C-section]
Setting: Multi-specialty 600 bed Kuwaiti governmental hospital
Patients and Methods: Women who underwent C-section during the period January through December 2005 were surveyed. Infection control staff carried out inpatient and post-discharge surveillance of post C-section SSI. Each patient diagnosed with SSI was compared to a matched control who did not develop SSI [1:1 nested case-control survey]. The matching criteria were age, wound class, American society of Anesthesiologists [ASA] score, duration of operation, date of surgery [same year] and any underlying disease process which might alter the patient's predisposition to infection. Clinical data were abstracted from patient's records. The cost of infection was calculated as the difference in cost of stay generated between cases and controls
Result: Of 1499 woman who underwent C-sections, 44 developed 56 SSIs [SSI rate 3.7%, CI 2.8-4.8]. The mean extra length of stay was 5.5 days and extra-cost due to infection was 398.7 KD per patient. The estimated cost attributable to all SSIs was 17542.8 KD during the year of surveillance
Conclusion: Estimates of the economic burden imposed by SSIs indicate that they are a substantial drain on hospital sector