Environmental impact on postoperative wound infections in a privately owned hospital in Ghana

Edwin Cade Hospital of Anglogold, Ashanti, had been experiencing high levels of surgical site infections, but the causes of these were unknown. This study aimed to investigate environmental contamination and postoperative wound infections in the hospital. Wound samples were collected from infected surgical sites and also environments of operating theatre and the surgical wards and cultured for bacteria. Growths on culture media were identified. Antimicrobial susceptibility of the isolates was tested. Culture results indicated bacterial infections of 86% of the surgical site wounds sampled. Wounds in female surgical ward had 92%, male surgical ward had 84.2% and the maternity ward had 81.4% wounds infected with various bacterial types. The most occurring isolate was Staphylococcus aureus (54.3%) followed by Escherichia coli (16.3%), Coagulase-negative Staphylococcus (15.5%), Proteus mirabilis (7.8%) and Pseudomonas aeruginosa (6.2%). Similar isolates were obtained from the environmental samples with Bacillus sp. (43.9%) dominating followed by S. aureus (24.9%). There was strong correlation between wounds isolates and environmental isolates (OR=.678, P>0.05). Post-operative wound infection in the hospital was high recording 86% probably due to environmental contaminants. Stronger infection control measures are advocated for the hospital.   Key words: Surgical site, postoperative wound infection, surgical wound, environmental contamination.