Effects of a surgical checklist on decreasing incisional infections following foreign body removal from the gastrointestinal tract in dogs.

Two similar populations of dogs were evaluated in either a retrospective or prospective manner for 2 weeks after gastrointestinal foreign body surgery to determine the impact of a surgical checklist on the surgical site infection (SSI) rate. The medical records of 201 gastrointestinal foreign body surgeries were reviewed to determine the SSI rate without the use of a surgical checklist (SC-) and 101 consecutive gastrointestinal foreign body surgeries were performed using a surgical checklist (SC+). The SSI rate had a significant decrease from 19.9% to 11.9% with the use of the surgical checklist. When combining the cohorts, statistically significant predictors for development of an SSI following gastrointestinal foreign body removal included: a combined gastrotomy and enterotomy, an enterotomy, and known self-trauma.