The Burden of Surgical Site Infection in Orthopedic Surgery: A Multi-Site Prevalence Day Exercise in the United Kingdom and Ireland

Purpose: To highlight the burden of surgical site complications (SSCs) across inpatients who have recently undergone orthopedic surgery by undertaking surgical site infection (SSI) prevalence days. Patients and Methods: Sites from the United Kingdom and Ireland enrolled in a single day’s data collection (either March or September 2022) to capture inpatient prevalence of SSIs and other SSCs. Data were collected from patients recovering from primary and revision hip or knee surgery and neck of femur (NOF) fracture surgery. Results: Data were collected on 851 inpatients across the two days, with NOF fracture surgery representing 50% of overall procedures, followed by primary hip (25.4%) and primary knee (12.8%) procedures, with 11.9% of patients in the hospital following revision procedures. The majority of patients documented across both days had at least one risk factor (76% overall). The overall prevalence of SSCs was 8% (n = 68). Revision surgical procedures had significantly higher complication rates than primary surgical procedures in both hips and knees (p < 0.01). The highest observed odds ratios (ORs) for SSCs were in patients who listed immunosuppression (OR = 2.47), previous SSI (OR = 4.59), and smoking (OR = 2.34) among their risk factors. Higher overall lengths of stay were observed in patients with complications. Conclusion: These prevalence days were a successful initiative to help hospital sites understand their own burden, benchmark against national averages, and contribute to a better national understanding of the burden of SSC, both to healthcare systems and, most importantly, patients.