Authors : Nirmal Kumar Agarwal, Rajiv Mahato, Labanya Kumar Acharya, Subhash A Ragupathy
DOI : 10.18231/j.pjms.2023.057
Volume : 13
Issue : 2
Year : 2023
Page No : 295-298
Aims: Hypoalbuminemia is a good marker of malnutrition. The objective is to analyze and correlate the rates of wound site infection in patient undergoing emergency surgery with preoperative serum albumin levels.
Materials and Methods: A prospective study of 98 patients who underwent emergency surgery between January 2021 to June 2021 in the Department of General Surgery, Tezpur medical college and hospital, Assam were considered for the study.
Serum albumin was determined preoperatively in all patients. Hypoalbuminemia was defined as serum albumin level of less than 3g/dl. Thirty day postoperative complication were analyzed. Wound site infection was confirmed by either by purulent discharge from the wound site or organism identified by aseptically obtained specimen from the superficial incision or from subcutaneous tissue by a culture based microbiological testing.
Results : A total of 98 patients who underwent emergency surgeries were studied. Out of 98 patients, 49 patients had normal Serum albumin levels and 49 patients had albumin levels of less than 3g/dl were included in the hypoalbuminemic group, Overall in the group of normal serum albumin level(n=49), patient with wound site infection were(n= 04) and patient without wound site infections were (n=45). In the group with level of albumin less than 3g/dl (n=49), patient with wound site infections (n=39), without wound site infections (n=10). After a chi-square test analysis with yates correction is 47.90.
Conclusions: Preoperative hypoalbuminemia is an independent risk factor and a predictor of postoperative wound site infections in patients undergoing emergency surgery. Identification and optimization of nutritional status prior to surgery may improve surgical outcomes
Keywords: Emergency surgery, Serum albumin levels, Wound site infection