Risk Factors for Postoperative Infectious Complications in Noncolorectal Abdominal Surgery

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Abstract
INFECTIOUS COMPLICATIONS are the main causes of postoperative morbidity in abdominal surgery.1 These complications have an important financial cost and are responsible for significant morbidity.2,3 To reduce these complications, it is important to establish the risk factors that increase their incidence using multivariate analysis. If this issue has been already addressed for colorectal surgery,4 it has not been well studied for abdominal noncolorectal surgery. Although the efficiency of antibiotic prophylaxis for reducing postoperative infectious complications has been demonstrated in previous prospective, randomized studies,5-7 controversy still exists about which specific antibiotic agent to use.8 Since 1992, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention,9 Atlanta, Ga, has modified the definition of surgical wound infection using the term "surgical site infection" (SSI), which includes parietal and deep infectious complications. To our knowledge, no studies reported in the literature consider postoperative global infectious complications including extraparieto-abdominal infectious complications (ie, urinary tract infections, intravascular catheter–induced infections, lung infections, and late infections).The risk factors for SSI and for global infectious complications may differ. Our study estimated the risk factors for SSI and for global infectious complications in abdominal noncolorectal surgery in patients who received antibiotic prophylaxis. Identification of risk factors in the perioperative period may allow for a reduction in the rate of postoperative infectious complications.