Tolga Özmen, Mirkhalig Javadov, Cumhur S. Yeğen

Department of General Surgery, Marmara University Faculty of Medicine, İstanbul, Turkey

Abstract

Objective: Surgical site infection (SSI) is a common complication after surgery and is a quality of care indicator. Risk factors for SSI are studied thoroughly for most types of gastrointestinal surgeries and especially colorectal surgeries, but accumulated data is still lacking for gastric surgeries. We studied the parameters affecting SSI rate after gastric cancer surgery.

Material and Methods: Consecutive patients, who received elective gastric cancer surgery between June and December 2013 were included.Descriptive parameters, laboratory values and medical histories were recorded prospectively. All patients were followed for 1 month. Recorded parameters were compared between the SSI (+) and SSI (-) groups.

Results: Fifty two patients (mean age: 58.87±9.25 [31-80]; 67% male) were included. SSI incidence was 19%. ASA score ≥3 (p<0.001), weight gain postoperatively (p<0.001), smoking (p=0.014) and BMI ≥30 (p=0.025) were related with a higher SSI incidence. Also patients in the SSI (+) group had a higher preoperative serum C-reactive protein (CRP) level (p=0.014).

Conclusion: We assume that decreasing BMI to <30, stopping smoking at least 3 weeks before the operation and preventing postoperative weight gain by avoiding excessive IV hydration will all help decrease SSI rate after gastric surgery.

Keywords: Gastric cancer, surgical site infection, risk factors


 

Ethics Committee Approval

Authors declared that the research was conducted according to the principles of the World Medical Association Declaration of Helsinki “Ethical Principles for Medical Research Involving Human Subjects”, (amended in October 2013).

Peer Review

Externally peer-reviewed.

Author Contributions

Concept – T.Ö.; Design – T.Ö.; Supervision – T.Ö., C.S.Y.; Resources – T.Ö., C.S.Y.; Materials – T.Ö., M.J.; Data Collection and/or Processing – T.Ö., M.J.; Analysis and/or Interpretation – T.Ö., C.S.Y.; Literature Search – T.Ö.; Writing Manuscript – T.Ö.; Critical Review – T.Ö., C.S.Y.; Other – T.Ö., M.J., C.S.Y.

Conflict of Interest

No conflict of interest was declared by the authors.

Financial Disclosure

The authors declared that this study has received no financial support.