Abstract

Post-operative wound sepsis is among the commonest complications of surgery, especially
in developing countries. This complication often increases the burden on patients; increases
hospitalization duration, painful wound dressings and other procedures like debridement
and secondary closure, drugs burden, and the associated increased hospital bills. To obtain
the prevalence, and factors associated with wound sepsis among post-operative patients in
KIUTH. A cross-sectional study design that is both descriptive and analytical was used. The
study was carried out between August and December 2017 in Kampala international
university teaching hospital, where participants were chosen according to our inclusion and
exclusion criteria. The prevalence of post-operative wound sepsis in KIUTH was found at
25.3%, with a higher prevalence in Emergency compared to Elective surgeries (cOR 2.552,
P=0.016, 95% CI, 1.194-5.456). Post-operative wound sepsis was found to be significantly
associated with ineffective use of antimicrobial prophylaxis pre-operatively (aOR 0.176,
P=0.010 95% CI 0.120-0.751). There was also noted a high association between post-operative wound sepsis and long Midline incisions, (cOR 2.308, P=0.116 95% CI 0.812-6.555), although this factor wasn’t statistically significant. The condition was however not found to be associated with Age and Patients underlying illness in this study, as it had been reported in many previous studies. The study found a high prevalence Wound sepsis among postoperative patients, which was dependent ineffective use of Antimicrobial prophylaxis preoperatively, and the use long midline incisions during surgery.