Research Article Surgical Site Infection Complicating Breast Cancer Surgery in Kuwait

Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Background and Objectives. Surgical site infection (SSI) is the most common postoperative complication associated with breast cancer surgery. e present investigation aimed to determine the SSI rate aer breast cancer surgeries and the causative microorganisms. Patients andMethods. All patients who underwent breast surgery in Kuwait Cancer Control Center as a treatment for breast cancer from January 2009–December 2010 were prospectively followed for the development of SSI. Indirect detection was used to identify SSIs through medical record to review and discussion with the treating surgeons. Results. e number of operations was 438. Females represented 434 (99.1%) cases while males constituted only 4 (0.9%) cases. SSIs were diagnosed aer 10 operations, all for female cases. Most of the SSIs (8 cases; 80%) were detected aer patients were discharged, during outpatient followup. Out of those 5/8; (62.5%) were readmitted for management of SSI. Nine patients (90%) received systemic antibiotic therapy for management of their wound infection. e SSI rate was 2.3%. e main causative organism was Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus) which was responsible for 40 % of infections. Gram negative bacteria were isolated from 40 % of the cases.Conclusion. SSI is an important complication following breast cancer surgery. Microbiological diagnosis is an essential tool for proper management of such patients. 1