Impact of Preoperative Bathing on Post Caesarean Section Surgical Site Infection (SSI-MUST)

Mbarara University of Science and Technology

Status: Completed

Conditions: Cesarean Wound Disruption With Postnatal Complication

Treatments: Other: preoperative bathing with antiseptic

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT03544710

08/08-17

Details and patient eligibility

About

Surgical site infection (SSI) is the commonest hospital-acquired infection globally, and prevalence is much higher in the low-income countries. Caesarean delivery carries a 5-20 fold risk for developing postpartum sepsis. SSIs cause significant morbidity, prolonged hospitalization and mortality. Simple and inexpensive interventions like preoperative bathing need to be studied, to assess their impact on surgical site infection rates.

Full description

Caesarean delivery is the single-most important risk factor for postpartum pregnancy associated infections carrying a 5 to 20-fold increase in the risk of developing sepsis. Research done in MRRH showed a post-surgery wound sepsis prevalence of 82% on all surgical wards in the hospital and the prevalence of post caesarean section wound infection at MRRH is 15.5%. At MRRH, surgical site infections remain a substantial cause of morbidity, prolonged hospitalization and mortality. SSI is associated with a mortality rate of 3%, and 75% of SSI associated deaths are directly attributable to the SSIs. Universal practices like preoperative bathing of patients are currently not being practiced at MRRH and thus their impact on reducing the burden can only be speculated upon. The aim of this study was to assess the impact of preoperative bathing with chloroxylenol antiseptic on the incidence of post caesarean section surgical site infection.

Enrollment: 96 patients

Sex: Female

Ages: 15 to 49 years old

Volunteers: No Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• All mother scheduled for delivery by emergency C/S at MRRH during the study period.

Exclusion criteria

• Women who declined to consent.
• Women with obvious evidence of infection, like fever, foul-smelling liquor, or those already on antibiotics for reasons other than preoperative prophylaxis.
• Women in whom delivery was indicated to occur within less than 30 minutes, like in fetal distress, obstructed labor, pulsatile cord prolapse, or ruptured uterus.
• Women who could not communicate and give information for the study and those who do not have a working telephone contact.

Trial design

Primary purpose: Prevention

Allocation: Randomized

Interventional model: Parallel Assignment

Masking: Single Blind

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96 participants in 2 patient groups

Bathing

Experimental group

Description:

Intervention was Preoperative bathing with antiseptic. Given warm water and a tablet soap containing chloroxylenol antiseptic. Asked to bathe under supervision for standardization. Given a clean theatre gown to put on. Taken through the routine pre-operative preparation procedures which involved; Putting an intravenous cannula; administering prophylactic antibiotics. Administering intravenous normal saline 1 liter. taking off a blood sample (3mls) for blood grouping and cross matching. Putting urethral catheter for drainage of urine, Getting an informed consent from the client for the procedure to be done. Informing the theatre team.

Treatment:

Other: preoperative bathing with antiseptic

No bathing

No Intervention group

Description:

No intervention done for participants in this arm. They go through the routine ward procedure as below. Putting an intravenous cannula; administering prophylactic antibiotics. Administering intravenous normal saline 1 liter. taking off a blood sample (3mls) for blood grouping and cross matching. Putting urethral catheter for drainage of urine, Getting an informed consent from the client for the procedure to be done. Informing the theatre team.