Does preventive care bundle have an impact on surgical site infections following spine surgery? An analysis of 9607 patients.

STUDY DESIGN: Retrospective cohort study.

OBJECTIVES: The purpose was to analyze the effect of care bundle protocol on SSI in our institution. Postoperative surgical site infections (SSI) pose significant health burden. In spite of the use of prophylactic antibiotics, surgical advances and postoperative care, wound infection continues to affect patient outcomes after spine surgery.

METHODS: Retrospective analysis of 9607 consecutive patients who underwent spine procedures from 2014 to 2018 was performed. Preventive care bundle was implemented from January 2017 consisting of (a) preoperative bundle-glycemic control, chlorhexidine gluconate (CHG) bath, (b) intra-operative bundle-time specified antibiotic prophylaxis, CHG+ alcohol-based skin preparation (c) postoperative bundle-five moments of hand hygiene, early mobilization and bundle auditing. Patients operated from January 2017 were included in the post-implementation cohort and prior to that the pre-implementation cohort was formed. Data were drawn from weekly and yearly spine audits from the hospital infection committee software. Infection data were collected based on CDC criteria, further sub classification was done based on procedure, spinal disorders and spine level. Variables were analyzed and level of significance was set as < 0.05.

RESULTS: A total of 7333 patients met the criteria. The overall SSI rate decreased from 3.42% (131/3829) in pre-implementation cohort to 1.22% (43/3504, p = 0.0001) in post-implementation cohort (RR = 2.73, OR = 2.79). Statistically significant reduction was seen in all the groups (a) superficial and deep, (b) early and late and (c) instrumented and uninstrumented groups but was more pronounced in early (p = 0.0001), superficial (p = 0.0001) and instrumented groups (p = 0.0001). On subgroup analysis based on spine level and spinal disorders, significant reduction was seen in lumbar (p = 0.0001) and degenerative group (p = 0.0001).

CONCLUSIONS: Our study revealed significant reduction of SSI secondary to strict bundle adherence and monitored compliance compared to patients who did not receive these interventions.

LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: III.