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Wound Contamination Correlates with Postsurgical Infection Rates: A New Assessment Technique

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Pathogenesis of Wound and Biomaterial-Associated Infections

Summary

A total of 226 operation wounds were monitored bacteriologi-cally by Raahave’s velvet pad sampling method during surgery. Wound sampling showed that operation wounds harboured ordinary aerobic and anaerobic commensals after incision (exogenous flora). When bacteria-containing viscera were opened, bacterial densities increased significantly before wound closure (endogenous flora). We found a significantly high correlation between the density of bacteria during operation and postsurgical wound sepsis. The predominant pathogens were Escherichia coli and Bacteroides fragilis. The infective dose of aerobic and anaerobic bacteria in postsurgical wound infection ranged from 2.6 ×101to1.1×105CFU×cm−2.

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© 1990 Springer-Verlag London Limited

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Raahave, D. (1990). Wound Contamination Correlates with Postsurgical Infection Rates: A New Assessment Technique. In: Wadström, T., Eliasson, I., Holder, I., Ljungh, Å. (eds) Pathogenesis of Wound and Biomaterial-Associated Infections. Springer, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4471-3454-1_63

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4471-3454-1_63

  • Publisher Name: Springer, London

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-540-19596-2

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-4471-3454-1

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