Wound infection after caesarean section

Abstract

A prospective incidence study into wound infection after caesarean section was carried out. Thirty-one centres in England and Wales participated and 2370 patients were entered into the study. One-hundred-and-forty-one patients (6.0 per cent) acquired wound infections, according to the definitions used (i.e. with both clinical and microbiological evidence of infection). If all inflamed wounds has been cultured, the infection rate would have been considerably higher, (calculated at 14.0 per cent). Patients with infected wounds spent an extra 2.4 days in hospital. Factors associated with wound infection included size of hospital, obesity, time in labour, number of vaginal examinations and various operative procedures.