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Quantification of risk factors in Hospital infection at a surgical service

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Abstract

In this paper we have analyzed several risk factors for developing nosocomial infections at a Surgical Service of the Hospital Clinico Universitario ≪ San Cecilio 2>, based on a retrospective follow-up program designed specifically for this study. Of all patients admitted to the Service from January 1 to June 17, 1987, we examined the following variables: age, sex, cause of admission, emergency or non-emergency admission, operation and related variables. The overall rate of nosocomial infections was 16.46%. The most significant risk factors we found were ≪ operation ≫, which had a linear correlation coefficient of '0.929 (p < 0.01) with hospital infection when stratified by its lenght, ≪ advanced age ≫ ( >60 years old), especially in non-operated patients, and chemoprophylaxis. Such risk factors were ascertained taking into account the confounding effect produced by the variables studied in this survey.

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Delgado-Rodriguez, M., Cueto-Espinar, A., Rodriguez-Contreras, R. et al. Quantification of risk factors in Hospital infection at a surgical service. Eur J Epidemiol 4, 235–241 (1988). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00144759

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