Interhospital comparison of orthopedic SSIs

Editor's Note

Deep surgical site infection (SSI) rates in orthopedic surgical procedures may be a better tool for interhospital comparisons than overall SSI rates, this study finds.

Researchers in Finland analyzed infection surveillance data for 73,227 total hip arthroplasties and 56,860 total knee arthroplasties performed in 18 hospitals from 1999 to 2014.

For total hips, overall SSI rates ranged from 0.92 to 6.83, deep SSI rates ranged from 0.34 to 1.86, and the adjusted deep hospital-specific SSI rates ranged from 0.37 to 1.85.

For total knees, overall SSI rates ranged from 0.71 to 5.03, deep SSI rates ranged from 0.42 to 1.60, and the adjusted deep hospital-specific SSI rates ranged from 0.56 to 1.55.

Hospital rank did not correlate between overall and deep SSI rates, but a correlation was found in hospital rank for deep and adjusted deep SSI rates.

Interhospital Comparison of Surgical Site Infection Rates in Orthopedic Surgery - Volume 38 Issue 4 - Jozica Skufca, Jukka Ollgren, Mikko J. Virtanen, Kaisa Huotari, Outi Lyytikäinen