Postoperative wound infections.

A prospective study of postoperative wound infection was carried out over a two year period in Cumhuriyet University Medicine Faculty Hospital in Sivas, Turkey. Examination of wounds, with cultures of all suspicious wounds using standard bacteriological methods was performed. Of a total of 4146 surgical wounds, 188 (4.53%), became infected. High infection rates were noted after colon resection (32.1%), gastric and oesophageal operations (21.1%), cholesystectomy (17.2%), and splenectomy (10.2%). Low infection rates were noted after thyroidectomy, mastectomy, caesarean section and abdominal hysterectomy. The commonest causative organisms were coagulase-negative staphylococci 21.7%, Staphylococcus aureus 19.7%, Escherichia coli 19.7%, Enterobacter spp. 17.6%, and Pseudomonas spp. 10.7%.