1 in 9 people infected after gut surgery

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More than 12% of people who have gastrointestinal surgery become infected within 30 days of going under the knife, researchers said Wednesday in a study covering 66 countries.

For low-income nations, the incidence of so-called surgical site infection was double the global average, according to the results, based on data compiled by a consortium of 2,500 doctors and researchers.

In wealthy countries, the rate of post-op infection was 9%, and for middle-income nations it was 14%.

In addition, one in five infections were resistant to antibiotics given before surgery as a preventive measure, the study found.

"This increased to one of three cases in low-income countries," said the University of Edinburgh's Ewen Harrison, leader of the GlobalSurg Collaborative which seeks to improve patient outcomes after surgery.

The overuse of antibiotics - especially in poor countries - is thought to be an important factor in post-operative infections.

The study, published in The Lancet Infectious Diseases, tracked more than 12,500 surgeries in 343 hospitals from January to July 2016.

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Before surgery, 96%, 87%, and 88% of patients were given antibiotics in low-, middle- and high-income nations respectively.

Levels of post-surgery antibiotic treatment were 86%, 80%, and 46%.

Antibiotic resistance varied according to a country's income level, ranging from 17% in rich nations to 36% in developing ones.

The most common types of surgery involved the removal of the gall bladder or appendix. Half of patients had emergency surgery.

Surgical-site infections tripled the odds of dying during or soon after an operation, the study found. Altogether, 5% of the operations reviewed for the study resulted in death.

"The cost of a surgical site infection - in terms of mortality, morbidity, health-care costs, and loss of productivity - is enormous," Robert Sawyer, a researcher at Western Michigan University's Homer Stryker M.D. School of Medicine, said in a comment.

Source(s): AFP