Increased Frequency of Hand Hygiene and Other Infection Prevention Practices Correlates with Reduced Surgical Wound Infection Rates in Spinal Surgery during the COVID-19 Pandemic

Andrea Perna; Francesco Maruccia; Franco Lucio Gorgoglione; Felice Barletta; Raffaele Vitiello; Luca Proietti; Francesco Ciro Tamburrelli; Domenico Alessandro Santagada

doi:10.3390/jcm11247528

Increased Frequency of Hand Hygiene and Other Infection Prevention Practices Correlates with Reduced Surgical Wound Infection Rates in Spinal Surgery during the COVID-19 Pandemic

J Clin Med. 2022 Dec 19;11(24):7528. doi: 10.3390/jcm11247528.

Authors

Affiliations

¹ Department of Orthopedics and Trauma Surgery, Fondazione Policlinico Universitario A. Gemelli IRCCS, 00168 Rome, Italy.
² Department of Orthopedics and Trauma Surgery, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, 00168 Rome, Italy.
³ Department of Orthopedics and Trauma Surgery, Fondazione Casa Sollievo Della Sofferenza IRCCS, San Giovanni Rotondo, 71013 Foggia, Italy.

Abstract

Background: Due to the COVID-19 pandemic outbreak, many changes were done in the hospital practice, and new guidelines were issued in order to contain the infection spread. One of the most common measures is represented by a correct and frequent hand washing. Recently, an association between increased adherence to hand hygiene (HH) protocols and reduction in hospital infections was documented however no studies about the surgical wound infection rate were reported in the Literature.

Methods: The present study represents a multicentric retrospective epidemiological study. The HH compliance rate was recorded through direct observations by trained nurses, 24 h a day. The primary outcome was HH compliance rate. The association of HH with spinal surgical wound infections was the secondary outcome.

Results: We reported a compliance to HH practices during the pandemic period of 85.2% compared with 57% observed during 2019. Our analysis showed an overall surgical wound infection reduction of 66.6% during the hospital stay in the pandemic period.

Conclusion: Hand hygiene has always been considered one of the most effective, reproducible and low-cost weapons to deal with hospital infections. The good health habits acquired during the COVID-19 pandemic should be maintained even after the virus is eradicated.

Keywords: COVID-19; hand hygiene; hospital infections; spinal surgery; surgical wound infection.

Grants and funding

This work has been funded by Italian Minister of Health, Ricerca Corrente program 2022–2024. The funders did not play any role in the design of the study, the collection, analysis, and interpretation of data, or in writing of the manuscript.