If you need any sort of a surgical procedure, you run the risk of getting an infection, but there are many things you can do that will help prevent getting an infection. Please don’t be afraid to ask that these guidelines are followed. There is nothing in here that is unreasonable to ask for, and they absolutely could save your life:
1. Ask that hospital staff clean their hands before treating you, and ask visitors to clean their hands too.
2. Before your doctor uses a stethoscope to listen to your chest, ask that the diaphragm (or flat surface of the stethoscope) be wiped with alcohol. The same precautions should be taken for many other commonly used pieces of equipment too.
3. If you many need a “central line” catheter, ask your doctor about the benefits of one that is antibiotic-impregnated or silver-chlorhexidine coated to reduce infections.
4. If you need surgery, choose a surgeon with a low infection rate. Surgeons know their rate of infection for various procedures. Ask for it. If they won’t tell you, consider choosing another surgeon.
5. Beginning three to five days before surgery, shower daily with 4% chlorhexidine soap. Drug stores that don’t stock chlorhexidine soap are generally happy to order it for you. You don’t need a prescription. One of the easiest brands to find is Hibiclens.
6. Ask your surgeon to have you tested for Staphylococcus aureus at least one week before you come into the hospital.
7. Stop smoking well in advance of your surgery. Patients who smoke are three times as likely to develop a surgical site infection as nonsmokers, and have significantly slower recoveries and longer hospital stays.
8. On the day of your operation, remind your doctor that you may need an antibiotic one hour before the first incision. For many types of surgery, a pre-surgical antibiotic is the standard of care, but it is often overlooked by busy hospital staff.
9. Ask your doctor about keeping you warm during surgery. Operating rooms are often kept cold for the comfort of the staff, but research shows that for many types of surgery, patients who are kept warm resist infection better.
10. Do not shave the surgical site. Razors can create small nicks in the skin, through which bacteria can enter. If hair must be removed before surgery, ask that clippers be used instead of a razor.
11. Ask that your surgeon limit the number of personnel (including medical students) in the operating room. Every increase in the number of people adds to your risk of infection.
12. Ask your doctor about monitoring your glucose (sugar) levels continuously during and after surgery, especially if you are having cardiac surgery. The stress of surgery often makes glucose levels spike erratically. New research shows that when blood glucose levels are tightly controlled to stay between 80-110 mg/unit, heart patients resist infection better. Continue monitoring even when you are discharged from the hospital, because you are not fully healed yet.
13. Avoid a urinary tract catheter if possible. It is a common cause of infection.
14. If you must have an IV, make sure that it is inserted and removed under clean conditions and changed every 3 to 4 days.
15. If you are planning to have your baby by Cesarean section, follow the steps listed above as if you were having any other type of surgery.
This list of how to prevent hospital acquired infections is from RID, the Committee to Reduce Infection Deaths, and is a shortened version. For footnotes and more detail, be sure and read the full information at RID.
Education, HA MRSA, Infection Prevention, MRSA
5 responses so far ↓
MRSA Notes » MRSA in C-Section Wound // May 13, 2007 at 9:26 pm
[...] is a story of a woman who acquired MRSA in her C-section wound. Remember these tips when you go into the hospital for any invasive procedure. I had a baby March 2, 2007. I was is surgery for 3 hours due to [...]
A.J. // Dec 14, 2007 at 1:18 am
Two people in my family got MRSA. One positively during a medical procedure… the other possibly during a medical procedure.
Thank you for posting the good advice about avoiding MRSA.
Bruce Smeaton // May 9, 2011 at 7:09 pm
Given your interest in MRSA I would invite you to go to the American Journal Of Infection Control (online if you don’t currently subscribe) and look at the “Articles In Press” in the current (May 2011) edition…and you will see the first one listed is a peer reviewed study entitled: Effectiveness of a Novel Ozone-Based System for the Rapid High-Level Disinfection of Healthcare Spaces and Surfaces”.
The journal article itself refers to an emerging infection control technology known as AsepticSure.
While the testing and clinical studies published in the article relate to “confined space” scenarios, the developer of AsepticSure is at an advanced stage in designing applications to deal with CAMRSA “hotspots” as well, such as: school locker rooms, gymnasiums, hotels, cruise ships etc.
Dr Michael Shannon (former Canadian Deputy Surgeon General) and Dr Dick Zoutman are just two of the string of eminent professionals working on this technology.
On the science side, you’ll be very intrigued to note that for the first time ever, 100% microbial kill rates measured as minimal reductions rates ranging from 6 – 7.9 log are being consistently achieved against spores including: MRSA, VRE, E.coli, P. aeruginosa, C.difficile and B.subtilis.
100% kill rates at these logs are unprecedented and open up the very real possibility of attacking CAMRSA as well.
If this is of interest to you, you could also do some good due diligence on the science behind the Asepticsure development by checking out the website of Medizone International.
Dr Zoutman is presenting AsepticSure to the World Health Organization-sponsored “First International Conference On Prevention & Infection Control” in Geneva at the end of June. So clearly, this is a development in the fight against superbugs and HAI’s that warrants more than just a cursory glance.
Hope you find this of interest.
Neel // May 31, 2011 at 6:47 am
Hey, This blog is published on 2007. But today I found this blog. Just wanna to say awesome.
Grant knight // Oct 23, 2011 at 6:42 pm
Hi it’s 2011/10/24 my wife has contract HAMRSA post c-section. I want to know if what the surgon is doing is the best treatment available. He believes dressing the wound with providine iodine solution is the best wound treatment, but we have learnt that there is new technology out there namley silver chlorhexide dressing associated with a vac dressing keeping the wound dry and stimulating growth of the tissue. That my first issue my second issue is that a microbiologist has advised that she should be treated with antibiotics between 10 & 15 days intravenous and then another month of oral. This surgeon only wants to treat for 5 days. My wife has had no fever yet and the wound has not started smelling yet but she has been in and out of surgery for a month 6 surgeries to be exact and every time the mrsa returns. Is there any body out there who can give us some advice on what to do
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