Incidence of Surgical Site Infection and Compliance with Antibiotic Prophylaxis in Cesarean Section in a Community Hospital in Qatar

Background: the current study aimed at describing the incidence, etiology of surgical site infections (ssi), and compliance with antibiotic prophylaxis in cesarean section during a 3.5 years period in a community hospital. methods: prospective data were collected to monitor the incidence of ssi and compliance with antibiotic prophylaxis in 450 patients undergoing the procedure from january 2013 to june 2016. results: the mean age of the patients was 31.8 years, 14.3% had diabetes mellitus, 4.73% had overweight, and 54.4% of the procedures were elective; also, 69.8% of the procedures had risk index (ri) 0, 26.3% ri 1, and 16 patients had ri 2 and 3. nine patients with ssi were reported, 8 with superficial incisional and 1 organ-space infections. the pooled infection rate in 2013 was 4.44%, followed by 1 .10% in 2014, 1.52% in 2015, and 2.56% in january to june 2016; in addition, 1.04% of the study subjects were ri 0 and 4.50% ri 1. methicillinresistant staphylococcus aureus was identified in 2 patients, and methicillin-sensitive staphylococcus aureus, pseudomonas aeruginosa, and klebsiella pneumonia in 1 patient, respectively. compliance with antibiotic prophylaxis increased from 53.5% in 2013 to 94.9% in january to june 2016. conclusions: the current study findings showed the effect of a multidimensional program to prevent surgical site infection in cesarean section, and the need to strengthen it.