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The researchers aimed to understand why surgical site infections (SSIs), which occur in about 1 in 30 surgeries, have not decreased despite infection prevention measures. They analyzed preoperative patient microbiomes and postoperative SSI samples using genomic analysis. [10] Of the 210 patients, 14 (6.8%) developed SSIs.
Cauterization (or cauterisation, or cautery) is a medical practice or technique of burning a part of a body to remove or close off a part of it. It destroys some tissue in an attempt to mitigate bleeding and damage, remove an undesired growth, or minimize other potential medical harm, such as infections when antibiotics are unavailable.
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]
Infection can lead not only to chronic wounds but also to gangrene, loss of the infected limb, and death of the patient. More recently, an interplay between bacterial colonization and increases in reactive oxygen species leading to formation and production of biofilms has been shown to generate chronic wounds.
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 ...
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 ]
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.
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.