Surgery that involves a cut (incision) in the skin can lead to a wound infection after surgery. Most surgical wound infections show up within the first 30 days after surgery.

Surgical wound infections may have pus draining from them and can be red, painful or hot to touch. You might have a fever and feel sick.

Causes

Surgical wounds can become infected by:

• Germs that are already on your skin that spread to the surgical wound
• Germs that are inside your body or from the organ on which the surgery was performed
• Germs that are in the environment around you such as infected surgical instruments or on the hands of the health care provider.

You are more at risk for a surgical wound infection if you:

• Have poorly controlled diabetes
• Have problems with your immune system
• Are overweight or obese
• Are a smoker

Treatment

Antibiotics are used to treat most wound infections. Sometimes, you also may need surgery to treat the infection.

Antibiotics

You may be started on antibiotics to treat the surgical wound infection. The length of time you will need to take the antibiotics varies, but will typically be for at least 1 week. You may be started on IV antibiotics and then changed to pills later. Take all of your antibiotics, even if you feel better.

If there is drainage from your wound, it may be tested to figure out the best antibiotic. Some wounds are infected with methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus which is resistant to commonly used antibiotics. A MRSA infection will need a specific antibiotic to treat it.

Invasive Surgical Treatment

Sometimes, your surgeon needs to do a procedure to clean the wound. They can take care of this either in the operating room, in your hospital room or in clinic. They will:

• Open the wound by removing the staples or sutures
• Do tests of the pus or tissue in the wound to figure out if there is an infection and what kind of antibiotic medicine would work best
• Debride the wound by removing dead or infected tissue in the wound

Wound Care

Your surgical wound may need to be cleaned and the dressing changed on a regular basis. You may learn to do this yourself, or nurses may do it for you. If you do this yourself, you will. Remove the old bandage and packing. You can shower to wet the wound, which allows the bandage to come off more easily.

Journal of Surgical Pathology and Diagnosis is a peer-reviewed medical journal published by Oxford University Press covering research on the pathogenesis, clinical investigation, medical microbiology, diagnosis, immune mechanisms, and treatment of diseases.

The Scientists, Professors, Research scholars, Doctors can publish their high quality papers for worldwide viability on our online platform. This journal is using Editorial Tracking System for online manuscript submission. Manuscript can be submitted through online portal system https://www.scholarscentral.org/submissions/surgical-pathology-diagnosis.html or send us as an e-mail attachment to surgicalpathol@emedsci.com

Best Regards

Eliza Grace

Journal Manager

Journal of Surgical Pathology and Diagnosis