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Randomized Controlled Trial
. 2023 Jun:136:38-44.
doi: 10.1016/j.jhin.2023.03.023. Epub 2023 Apr 21.

The costs of surgical site infection after abdominal surgery in middle-income countries: Key resource use In Wound Infection (KIWI) study

Collaborators, Affiliations
Free article
Randomized Controlled Trial

The costs of surgical site infection after abdominal surgery in middle-income countries: Key resource use In Wound Infection (KIWI) study

M Monahan et al. J Hosp Infect. 2023 Jun.
Free article

Abstract

Background: Surgical site infection (SSI) is the most common complication of abdominal surgery, with substantial costs to patients and health systems. Heterogeneity in costing methods in existing SSI studies makes multi-country comparison challenging. The objective of the study was to assess the costs of SSI across middle-income countries.

Methods: Centres from a randomized controlled trial assessing interventions to reduce SSI (FALCON, ClinicalTrials.gov, NCT03700749NCT) were sampled from two upper-middle- (India, Mexico) and two lower-middle- (Ghana, Nigeria) income countries. The Key resource use In Wound Infection (KIWI) study collected data on postoperative resource use and costs from consecutive patients undergoing abdominal surgery with an incision >5 cm (including caesarean section) that were recruited to FALCON between April and October 2020. The overall costs faced by patients with and without SSI were compared by operative field contamination (clean-contaminated vs contaminated-dirty), country and timing (inpatient vs outpatient).

Findings: A total of 335 patients were included in KIWI; SSI occurred in 7% of clean-contaminated cases and 27% of contaminated-dirty cases. Overall, SSI was associated with an increase in postoperative healthcare costs by 75.3% (€412 international Euros) after clean-contaminated surgery and 66.6% (€331) after contaminated-dirty surgery. The highest and lowest cost increases were in India for clean-contaminated cases (€517) and contaminated-dirty cases (€223), respectively. Overall, inpatient costs accounted for 96.4% of the total healthcare costs after clean-contaminated surgery and 92.5% after contaminated-dirty surgery.

Conclusion: SSI was associated with substantial additional postoperative costs across a range of settings. Investment in health technologies to reduce SSI may mitigate the financial burden to patients and low-resource health systems.

Keywords: Global South; Healthcare costs; Hospital acquired infections; Patient Outcomes; Postoperative complication; Wound infection.

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