Surgical site infection rates following laparoscopic urological procedures.

PURPOSE: Surgical site infections have been categorized by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services as "never events". The incidence of surgical site infection following laparoscopic urological surgery and its risk factors are poorly defined. We evaluated surgical site infection following urological laparoscopic surgery and identified possible factors that may influence occurrence. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Patients who underwent transperitoneal laparoscopic procedures during a 4-year period by a single laparoscopic surgeon were retrospectively reviewed. Surgical site infections were identified postoperatively and defined using the Centers for Disease Control criteria. Clinical parameters, comorbidities, smoking history, preoperative urinalysis and culture results as well as operative data were analyzed. Nonparametric testing using the Mann-Whitney U test, multivariable logistic regression and Spearman's rank correlation coefficient were used for data analysis. RESULTS: In 556 patients undergoing urological laparoscopic procedures 14 surgical site infections (2.5%) were identified at mean postoperative day 21.5. Of the 14 surgical site infections 10 (71.4%) were located at a specimen extraction site. Operative time, procedure type and increasing body mass index were significantly associated with the occurrence of surgical site infections (p = 0.007, p = 0.019, p = 0.038, respectively), whereas history of diabetes mellitus (p = 0.071) and intraoperative transfusion (p = 0.053) were found to trend toward significance. Age, gender, positive urine culture, steroid use, procedure type and smoking history were not significantly associated with surgical site infection. Body mass index and operative time remained significant predictors of surgical site infection on multivariate logistic regression analysis. CONCLUSIONS: Surgical site infection is an infrequent complication following laparoscopic surgery with the majority occurring at the specimen extraction site. Infection is associated with prolonged operative time and increasing body mass index.