25 Ago Suture thread check test for detection of surgical site contamination: a prospective study

Surgical site infection(SSI) is a common complication of surgical procedures.We investigated a new method exploiting the microbial contamination of a suture thread in patients who underwent surgical procedure and its role in identifying patients which will develop an SSI.We enrolled a total of 119 patients who underwent elective surgery at Surgery Unit of the Second University of Naples.For each patient a synthetic absorbable thread was inserted in the surgical site at the end of surgery and after 48h sent to laboratory for microbiological tests aimed at analyzing the colonization of its inner tract.40 patients showed a contaminated thread.A SSI was observed in 3 patients who underwent a clean procedure(one with implants and prophylaxis and two without) and in one patient subjected to a contaminated procedure.The patients which had a colonized thread received antibiotic prophylaxis less frequently than those who did not show any colonization of thread(11.8%vs.83.5%,p<0.0001) and a SSI was observed more frequently in patients with a colonized thread than in those without(10%vs.0,p=0.02).The microorganisms identified in colonized thread were the same identified in surgical site infections.A SSI was found only in patients with colonized thread.Accordingly, the method can be profitably exploited also by clinicians for targeting efficient antibiotic therapy for SSI by using the microorganism isolated through the thread.