Highlights
- •Adequate surgical antibiotic prophylaxis (SAP) decreases surgical site infections
- •Compliance to local SAP guidelines was assessed pre and per-intervention
- •Intervention consisted of feedback letters sent to surgeons and anesthesiologists
- •An interrupted time series found a non-significant difference in compliance rates
- •A longer and multidimensional intervention might improve SAP compliance
Summary
Background
Surgical antibiotic prophylaxis (SAP) has been proved to decrease the rate of surgical
site infections (SSI), but compliance to SAP guidelines remains suboptimal.
Aim
This study evaluated the impact of periodically sending individualized feedback letters
to surgeons and anesthesiologists on their compliance rate to SAP guidelines.
Methods
A total of 1491 surgeries were evaluated by retrospective chart review during the
pre-intervention period and 668 surgeries were evaluated by prospective chart review
during the per-intervention period. Finally, 295 letters were sent to 64 surgeons
and 45 anesthesiologists. Compliance rate was assessed as an outcome composed of:
indication for SAP, choice of antibiotic agent, antibiotic dose, postoperative duration,
timing of the preoperative dose and intraoperative redosing. An interrupted time series
design was used to assess a difference on compliance rates before and during the intervention
period.
Findings
Sending individualized feedback letters to surgeons and anesthesiologists did not
significantly improve the overall compliance to local SAP guidelines.
Conclusion
Individualized feedback letters could be part of future interventions directed at
improving compliance to SAP guidelines, but are likely insufficient by themselves
to provide significant results.
Keywords
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© 2022 Published by Elsevier Inc. on behalf of Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology, Inc.
