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An infection is designated as an SSI if it develops at the site of a surgical wound, either because of contamination during surgery or as a result of postoperative complications. For the infection to be classified as an SSI, it should occur within 30 days after surgery or within 1 year if an implant is involved. [3]
Surgical wounds can become infected by bacteria, regardless if the bacteria is already present on the patient's skin or if the bacteria is spread to the patient due to contact with infected individuals. [5] Wound infections can be superficial (skin only), deep (muscle and tissue), or spread to the organ or space where the surgery occurred. [5]
Thus patients may not initially notice small wounds to legs and feet, and may therefore fail to prevent infection or repeated injury. [8] Further, diabetes causes immune compromise and damage to small blood vessels, preventing adequate oxygenation of tissue, which can cause chronic wounds. [8]
Infection prevention and control is the discipline concerned with preventing healthcare-associated infections; a practical rather than academic sub-discipline of epidemiology. In Northern Europe , infection prevention and control is expanded from healthcare into a component in public health , known as "infection protection" ( smittevern ...
Timing is important to wound healing. Critically, the timing of wound re-epithelialization can decide the outcome of the healing. [11] If the epithelization of tissue over a denuded area is slow, a scar will form over many weeks, or months; [12] [13] If the epithelization of a wounded area is fast, the healing will result in regeneration.
Wound, ostomy, and continence nursing is a nursing specialty involved with the treatment of patients with acute and chronic wounds, patients with an ostomy (those who have had some kind of bowel or bladder diversion), and patients with incontinence conditions (those with issues of bladder control, bowel control, and associated skin care).
The goal of asepsis is to eliminate infection, not to achieve sterility. [1] Ideally, a surgical field is sterile , meaning it is free of all biological contaminants (e.g. fungi, bacteria, viruses), not just those that can cause disease, putrefaction , or fermentation . [ 1 ]
Dressings can also regulate the chemical environment of a wound, usually with the aim of preventing infection by the impregnation of topical antiseptic chemicals. Commonly used antiseptics include povidone-iodine, boracic lint dressings or historically castor oil. [5] Antibiotics are also often used with dressings to prevent bacterial infection.