Abstract
Objective: The study was done to evaluate the prevalence of surgical site infection (SSI) in the government hospitals in Madinah, and to identify the relative risk factors that may contribute to its occurrence. Methods: This is a retrospective cross sectional study that was conducted in 3 main government hospitals in Madinah, Saudi Arabia; King Fahad, Ohud and Al-Ansar hospitals during the period between 1/10/2017 to 31/12/2017. The studied sample included 300 patients in different specialties, (General surgery, Orthopedics, ENT, Urology and Ophthalmology). Result: The study revealed that 11 cases (3.67%) out of 300 surgeries developed SSI. The prevalence of SSI was equal in Ohoud and KFH hospitals (4%), but it was lower in Alansar hospital (3%). Moreover, Urology ranked first in the rate of SSI (10%), whereas other specialties had lower prevalence of SSI as follows; ENT (6.89%), Orthopedic (3.03%) and General Surgery (2.68%). Among the risk factors studied, Diabetes Mellitus (DM), overweight and obesity showed significant association with SSI (P-value= 0.0017, P-value = 0.047 and P-value = 0.023) respectively. Conclusion: In this study the prevalence of SSI in three main hospitals in Al-Madinah within 3 months period was (3.67%), which is comparable to other studies. There was statistically significant correlation between diabetes, overweight and obesity and SSI, whereas the correlation to other studied risk factors was statistically non-significant.