The aim of this study was to determine the incidence of the Surgical Site Infection (SSI) in the hospital and after discharge in patients submitted to digestive system surgeries (SDS), and to verify the association between SSI and the type of surgery, the time of hospital internment, the patient's clinical condition, the classification of the surgical wound and the duration of the surgical procedure. It is a prospective study carried out at a university hospital between August of 2001 and March of 2002. Of 357 patients submitted to SDS, 64 SSI cases were notified - 16 in the hospital and 48 after discharge, incidences of 4.5% and 13.9% respectively. It was verified an association of SSI with the preoperative stay in hospital and with the classification of the surgical wound. The global incidence of SSI was 18.0%, and there was a four-fold increase when the post-discharge surveillance was carried out. In consequence, it can be concluded that if the post-discharge surveillance is not conducted the global SSI incidence would be strongly undernotified.
Surgery; Cross infection; Surgical wound infection
