Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust’s Surgical Site Infection (SSI) Team provide an insight into patient-reported SSI surveillance, using the latest smart-phone technology. The team have identified ‘five pillars of post-discharge surveillance’, as part of the ‘SWIFT’ approach (Smart, Well-connected, Inclusive, Flexible, and Therapeutics).
Worldwide, surgical wound complications (SWCs) are a significant healthcare concern, disrupting the normal healing process of wounds following surgery and leading to delayed recovery. These complications are associated with considerable morbidity and a mortality rate that affects approximately 1-4% of patients.1 Among these, surgical site infections (SSIs) represent a form of SWC caused by pathogens, typically bacteria.
SSI may affect only the skin and subcutaneous tissue (called superficial incisional SSI), or they can be more severe. Deep incisional infections involve tissue located beneath the skin and subcutaneous fat, including structures that support and surround bones, joints, and internal organs), or organ/space SSI (involving organs, or implanted materials).2
The cost of an SSI corresponds with its severity, reflecting the staffing, diagnostics and treatment involved, and whether antibiotic resistant bacteria were involved.3 Treatment costs per patient for one deep orthopaedic SSI have been estimated at £100,000 when re-operation; extended length of stay; high-cost, long-term antibiotics; and new high-cost replacement protheses are included.4
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