Postoperative Complications and Factors Associated with Surgical Site Infection at Muhimbili National Hospital, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania: A cross-Sectional study.

Background: Postoperative complications are a leading cause of morbidity and mortality to surgical patients. Different complications are encountered in clinical practice, however surgical site infection (SSI) appears to be the most common. To date, limited published information is known pertaining to the patterns of postoperative complications and factors associated with SSI among patients operated on in other hospitals in Tanzania and referred to Muhimbili national hospital for further management. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to identify patterns of postoperative complications and factors associated with SSI among the study participants.

Methods: This was a hospital based cross-sectional study conducted at Muhimbili national hospital from August 2022 to January 2023, which included 181 patients. Obtained data was analysed using frequency tables, Pearson Chi-squared test and binary logistic regression model, at a level of significance of <0.05.

Results: One hundred eighty one (181) patients were included in this study, of whom 113(62.4%) were females; median age was 39 years. Cigarette smokers and alcohol consumers were 42(23.2%) and 90(49.7%) respectively. Diabetic patients were 8(4.4%), 35(19.3%) were HIV positive and 52(28.7%) had hypertension. Patients whose diagnosis was related to general surgery accounted for 50.2%, whereas 30.9% were obstetric cases. Patients who had undergone Caesarean section were 45(24.9%), whereas 20(11%) patients had undergone total abdominal hysterectomy. Bowel resection and primary anastomosis included 16(8.8%) patients and perforated peptic ulcer repair 8(4.4%) patients. Patients with infected peritoneal collection were 34(18.8%), postpartum haemorrhage 18(9.9%) and bowel perforation 10(5.5%). Patients who had undergone relaparotomy as part of treatment were 70(38.7%), whereas 30(16.6%) patients with SSIs were treated by serial wound dressing and 26(14.4%) patients were admitted and nursed in intensive care unit. None of the factors was found to have a statistically significant association with SSI.

Conclusions: There is a large proportion of patients suffering from postoperative complications after gastroenterology and obstetric surgeries; and of all complications encountered in this study; SSI was the most common contributing 52%, followed by gastrointestinal complications at 31%. Despite the fact that multiple factors were associated with SSI, none of them was found to be statistically significant.