ABSTRACT
During a 6-year period, 97 patients with an acute rupture of the Achilles tendon were operated on under local anesthesia as outpatients. At follow-up, 5/81 patients had some discomfort. A rerupture occurred in 3 patients shortly after commencing weight bearing and after substantial traumas. We conclude that there is no need to hospitalize patients with an Achilles tendon rupture.
Subject(s)
Achilles Tendon/injuries , Ambulatory Surgical Procedures , Anesthesia, Local , Athletic Injuries/surgery , Achilles Tendon/surgery , Adult , Aged , Female , Humans , Male , Middle Aged , Recurrence , Retrospective Studies , RuptureABSTRACT
A low-cost personal computer program to monitor surgical wound infections was developed in parallel to the Danish national guidelines for recording postoperative wound infections. Internationally accepted definitions were used. The program offers three fixed-data entry screens and produces user-specified variations of four standard tables, comprising most of the epidemiological data needed for surveillance and infection control. The program was tested in Danish hospitals and was found to serve well as a simple local tool for the operating staff, offering fast information on infection rates. Results from two hospitals consisting of 3904 operations are presented. Infections occurring after discharge were included. Overall infection rates for clean wounds were 2.3%, clean-contaminated wounds 4.7%, contaminated wounds 4.3% and dirty operations 8.3%. None of the hospitals had used infection surveillance systems before.
Subject(s)
Hospital Departments , Information Systems/organization & administration , Surgery Department, Hospital , Surgical Wound Infection/epidemiology , Denmark , Humans , Microcomputers , Population Surveillance , Surgical Wound Infection/prevention & controlABSTRACT
Operation wounds and surgical wound infections (S.W.I.) in the surgical department of Holbaek County Hospital were recorded over a period of one year. This registration was conducted in co-operation with the National Centre for Hospital Hygiene to test a standardised and simplified registration system and edb-programme, the Danop-Data system, developed to record S.W.I. on PC. 1.377 wounds and 45 S.W.I. were recorded. The overall infection rate was 3.3%. This compares favourably with rates reported in more extensive foreign investigations. There were significantly fewer infections during the second six months than during the first six month of the year. This was not due to changed conditions during the period of registration. The registration system and the edb-programme provide a satisfactory method of continuous surveillance of S.W.I. At the same time, the system itself proved very easy to use.
