Peer-reviewed veterinary case report
An examination of the occurrence of surgical wound infection following equine orthopaedic surgery (1981-1990).
- Journal:
- Equine veterinary journal
- Year:
- 1994
- Authors:
- MacDonald, D G et al.
- Affiliation:
- Department of Veterinary Anesthesiology · Canada
- Species:
- horse
Plain-English summary
This study looked at the rates of infections after orthopedic surgeries in horses at a veterinary college in Canada from 1981 to 1990. Out of 452 surgeries, about 10% developed infections, with a higher rate of 52.6% for surgeries that were classified as clean-contaminated (which means they had some risk of infection) compared to 8.1% for clean surgeries. Factors that increased the risk of infection included the type of surgery, whether it involved long bones, how long the surgery lasted (90 minutes or more), the use of antibiotics before surgery, and the horse's gender, with females being more likely to get infections than males. Overall, the study found that certain conditions and practices significantly affected the likelihood of infection after surgery.
Abstract
Post operative surgical wound infection rates were determined 452 cases of equine orthopaedic surgery performed at the Western College of Veterinary Medicine, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, between January 1, 1981 and December 31, 1990. Only surgical procedures classified as clean or clean-contaminated by the National Research Council were included in this study. The overall post operative infection rate was 10.0% (45 of 452). Clean surgeries (n = 433) had an 8.1% infection rate while clean-contaminated surgeries (n = 19) had a 52.6% infection rate. Information collected from the medical records was used in univariate and multivariate logistic regression models to evaluate significant determinates of post operative infection. Significant determinates of post operative infection were: surgical classification, orthopaedic involvement, duration of surgery, administration of preoperative antibiotics and gender. Clean-contaminated surgeries had an increased risk of infection compared to clean surgeries (odds ratio (OR) = 24.3), procedures involving long bones had an increased risk of infection compared to procedures involving articular surfaces (OR = 5.1), surgeries lasting 90 minutes or longer had an increased risk of infection compared to those less than 90 minutes (OR = 3.6), administration of preoperative antibiotics was associated with an increased risk of infection (OR = 4.6) and female patients were 2.6 times more likely to develop post operative infection than male patients.
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Search related cases →Original publication: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/8575401/