[The role of infection control in the prevention of postoperative endophthalmitis].

Introduction: Infection control programs play an important role in the fight against nosocomial infections. They include all written protocols used and practical procedures performed before, during and after surgery. The authors describe the role of infection control in the prevention of postoperative endophthalmitis.

Patients And Methods: Retrospective data of endophthalmitis cases following elective eye penetrating surgeries performed at the Departments of Ophthalmology of the University of Debrecen and of the Hajdú-Bihar County Hospital in the periods between 1997-2001 and 2002-2003 were evaluated. Infection control methods for prevention have been in use in both institutes since 2002.

Results: The incidences of postoperative endophthalmitis before and after 2002 were 0.09 % and 0.07 %, respectively. Endophthalmitis cases in both periods occurred sporadically. Between 1997 and 2001 women accounted for 63.6 %, while they made up 80 % between 2002 and 2003; In the first period 63.6 % were older than 60 years whereas this group made up and 100 % in the second period. During the two periods accompanying chronic systemic diseases also had to be taken into consideration in 80 % and in 63.6 % of the cases, respectively. Intraoperative loss of the vitreous body was present in 27.2 % (1997-2001), and in 20 % (2002-2003) of the cases.

Conclusions: We did not find any statistically significant difference between the incidence of postoperative endophthalmitis in the two periods. We think, however, that further studies involving more patients and longer study periods will reveal a correlation between the use of infection control methods and the prevention of both sporadic and epidemic cases of endophthalmitis, therefore all available data concerning this problem should be published. Moreover, the introduction of infection control policies into clinical practice will make prevention deliberate and more effective.