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BACKGROUND: Surgical site infections (SSIs) are one of the most frequently reported types of hospital-acquired infection and are associated with substantial clinical and economic burden. AIM: To assess the incidence of SSIs and analyze contributing risk factors in a real-world Spanish hospital setting before and after the implementation of triclosan-coated sutures (TCS). METHODS: A prospective, observational study was conducted at Hospital Clínico Universitario de Santiago de Compostela, Spain. Enrolled patients underwent surgery in the following specialties: general surgery, urology, neurosurgery, gynaecology, and traumatology. The primary outcome of the study was SSI incidence, assessed at a 30-day follow-up. Secondary outcomes were length of hospital stay, and readmission, reintervention, and mortality rates, also at 30 days. FINDINGS: 5,081 patients were included in the study, of which 2,591 were treated using non-coated sutures (NCS) and 2,490 using TCS. After adjusting for potential confounders, TCS significantly reduced SSI rate by 36%, compared with NCS (odds ratio [OR]: 0.64; 95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.48-0.85; P<0.003). When stratified by wound classification, a statistically significant reduction in SSI incidence, in favour of TCS use, was observed for Class IV (dirty) wounds (35.6% versus 22.7% for NCS and TCS, respectively; OR: 0.53; 95% CI: 0.31-0.90). CONCLUSION: The use of TCS reduced SSI risk when compared with NCS. This reduction was significant for Class IV wounds, providing evidence that supports the use of TCS for this type of wound.
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INTRODUCTION: Endourology waiting lists have increased during the COVID-19 pandemic and prioritization strategies are needed. Some tiered classifications have been put forward aimed at prioritizing patients by using criteria related with clinical severity or social impact of stone disease, yet no quantitative system has been published to date. The objective of this study is to present a new quantitative scoring system for elective stone surgery prioritization and show its intra- and inter-rater reliability. MATERIAL AND METHODS: A scoring system coined 'SCQ-score' was set up, which consists of 9 variables: infection (ranges 0-3), obstruction (0-3), indwelling time (0-3), admissions (0-3), symptoms (0-2), ureteral location (0-1), solitary or suboptimal kidney (0-1), chronic kidney disease (0-1) and presence of percutaneous nephrostomy (0-1).The intra- and inter-rater reliability of the SCQ-score was prospectively validated in 60 consecutive patients on the waiting list, by calculating the intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC). RESULTS: The SCQ-score demonstrated having an excellent interobserver agreement (ICC >0.75) for the final score and its different domains. After 4 weeks, a second analysis was carried out to measure its intra-rater reliability, which was also excellent. On average, 134.9 ±50 seconds were required to complete the SCQ-score. CONCLUSIONS: The SCQ-score is a new quantitative system to help prioritize elective stone surgeries, which has been shown to be user-friendly and to have an excellent intra- and inter-rater reliability. Initially developed to help during the COVID-19 pandemic, its utility will probably remain of interest in the post-COVID-19 era to ensure a fairer access to stone surgery.