A hip fracture is a common injury in the elderly. In most cases, hip fractures are treated surgically, with surgical site infection as one of the most serious complications. Perioperative antimicrobial prophylaxis is part of preventive measures against complications with surgical site infection. In Slovenian guidelines, cefazolin is recommended as the first choice for perioperative antimicrobial prophylaxis in orthopedic procedures. Vancomycin is recommended as an alternative in case of hypersensitivity to β-lactams or in case of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus colonization.
We performed a retrospective study to analyze the use of perioperative antimicrobial prophylaxis in patients aged 18 years and over, who underwent hip fracture surgery at Jesenice general hospital in the period from 2018 to 2021. The compliance of antimicrobial prophylaxis with applicable Slovenian guidelines, as well as the incidence of surgical site infection, were determined.
We included a total of 785 patients, amongst whom 531 (67.6%) were women. Their average age was 79.3 years. In 76.8% of the included patients, the antimicrobial prophylaxis was in accordance with the guidelines. Antimicrobial prophylaxis with cefazolin was found to be compliant with Slovenian guidelines in 77.5%, with dosing of cefazolin as the most consistent observed parameter (99.1%), and dosing interval of cefazolin as the least (72.1%). Antimicrobial prophylaxis with vancomycin was found to be compliant with Slovenian guidelines in only 32.4%, with the time of administration of the first dose of vancomycin as the least compliant observed parameter (38.8%) and the choice of vancomycin and its dosing as the most consistent observed parameter (94.3%). These findings show, that in order to improve compliance of perioperative antimicrobial prophylaxis with guidelines, it is necessary to direct measures not only in the field of prescribing antibacterial drugs, but also in the area of work organization in hospital departments to ensure the timely application of antibacterial drugs. Surgical site infection occurred in four patients. Staphylococcus aureus was identified in three cases, Staphylococcus epidermidis in one. All patients with a surgical site infection were older than 65 years, among them three women and one man. All of them had five or more comorbid conditions and were assigned to the ASA 2 class or higher. Two patients had a femoral neck fracture, one patient had an intertrochanteric and one subtrochanteric fracture. The medical documentation was mostly deficient in terms of information on the time of the application of the first dose of an antibacterial drug (8.9%). At the first control examination after hospital discharge in 42.4% of patients, who came to the first check-up, there was no information on the condition of the surgical wound in the doctor's report. Patients with incomplete data in their medical records cannot be included in determining treatment compliance, monitoring treatment outcomes, and identifying deviations in various treatment complications.
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