Wound

Risk of surgical site infection and Silver Dressing

Introduction

Surgical site infection (SSIs) is a kind of infection which comes in to existence in a wound on the body part where the surgery has taken place after a surgery has been taken place. The studies show that surgical site infection occurs on average 20% of total all other health related infections. The studies further show that around 5 percent of the patients suffer or experience surgical site infection after going through any surgery (www.nice.org.uk). Some of the symptoms of the surgical site infection are as following:

Pain and redness near the area of surgery

Draining of fluid from the wounds of surgery

And Fever (www.shea-online.org)

On the other hand silver dressing means addition of silver in the wounds while dressing. It is used in medical appliances as disinfectant. More over it is also used as antiseptic. Other additional use of silver is in form of colloidal silver. But this sort of sue of silver is considered to be effective way.

Discussion

There can be an intense affect of surgical site infection on a patient and his life. The surgical site infection can lead a person to longer stays in hospital. Sadly the surgical site infection is not only restricted to longer hospital stays but it also burdens the health care provider who is baring the financial cost. Surgical site infections are considered to be the third most common

Infection which is acquired at hospital. In general it is expected that these are the kind of infections which come in to existence within 30 days after the surgery has taken place. The surgical site infection leads to the extension of six to 11 days of the patient in hospital. This also costs further for the treatment. On average it costs from around $ 11,000 to $ 35,000. The good part is that the surgical site infections can be treated. Majority of surgical site infections can be treated through antibiotics. The kind of antibiotics selected for patients depends upon the bacteria or germs which have caused the infection. Sometimes there is a possibility that a patient might need further surgery for the suitable treatment of infection instead of antibiotics usage.

There are some ways which can be used to prevent the occurrence of surgical site infection.

Those ways are mentioned below:

The hospital staff and the staff who is doing surgery can clean the hands and their arms up to the level of elbows with antiseptics just before the surgery is about to start.

The staff can clean their hands with water and soap before the surgery of the patient and after caring of the patient.

The staff can remove some of the hairs of the patients quickly before the surgery takes place with the help of electric clippers incase if the surgery area has hairs. But this should be kept in mind that the hairs must not be removed with the help of razor.

To keep the surgery area clean gowns, gloves, masks or hair covers can be used while ...