Time-trends in infant mortality rates in the southern Europe

Infant Mortality Rate (IMR) has been considered an important health indicator in monitoring quality of health care. Objectives: To examine trends in IMR in Southern Europe (SE) over the last two decades. Methods: Number of live births and infant deaths reported for SE (Portugal, Italy, Greece and Spain) between 1990 and 2013 were abstracted from World Health Organization Database. Annual IMR per 1,000 live births was computed for each country and for SE as a whole. Joinpoint regression models were used to estimate average annual percent change (AAPC) in IMR and respective 95% Conidence Interval (95% CI) and to identify points in time when signiicant changes in trend occurred (joinpoints). Results: Between 1990 and 2013, IMR signiicantly decreased from 9.2 to 3.4 in SE and the highest decrease was observed from 1992 to 1998 (AAPC = -6.1%; 95%CI: -6.5%; -5.8%). Signiicant decline in IMR was observed in all countries but the pattern was different across countries. IMR varied across countries between 11.5 and 8.3 and between 3.1 and 3.8 in 2013; highest IMR were observed in Portugal for 1990 and in Greece for 2013. Most notable decreases in IMR were observed from 1990 to 1995 in Portugal (AAPC = -8.4% 95%CI: -8.8; -8.1), from 1993 to 1997 in Italy (AAPC = -6.6% 95%CI: -7.8; -5.5) from 1998 to 2006 in Greece (AAPC = -6.8% 95%CI: -7.0; -6.5), and from 1993 to 1996 in Spain (AAPC = -7.3% 95%CI: -9.0; -5.6). Decreases in IMR were signiicant during all time period in Italy and Greece but in Portugal and Spain IMR became unchangeable after 2010-2011. Conclusions: Decrease in IMR in countries of SE suggests steadily improvement in the quality of health care. However differences in the pattern of decrease across countries during the last years deserve particular attention.

A microbiology study of the surgical site infection, at a hospital in northern Portugal

Surgical site infections (SSIs) remain a major clinical problem in terms of morbidity, mortality, time spent in hospital and overall direct and indirect costs. Objectives: To measure the prevalence of the SSI, by type of surgery and microbiologically characterization, in adult patients undergoing surgery during 2015 at a public hospital in northern Portugal. Methods: A prospective study, attended by 609 adult patients, undergoing surgery. The sociodemographic and clinical data of the population, as well as the surgical procedure and microbiological study were analyzed using Microsoft Access 2013. Results: In the sample of 609 adults undergoing surgery, it was found that 62.89% of surgical wound were cleaned, 15.8% were clean-contaminated, 8.70% were contaminated and 9.36% infected. About 62.52% of the intervened patients had antibiotic prophylaxis prior to surgery. Out of all surgeries, 33.3% were laparoscopic. The percentage of SSI was 5.74%; In these positive cases, only 3.61% was identiied the responsible bacteria. The urgent surgeries have more infections when compared to the programmed ones. In colon surgery the number of infections was 60% after cholecystectomy (22.86%). In hernioplasty, infection occurred in only 2.86% of the patients. The most isolated bacteria was Escherichia coli with 59%, in which 30% are -producing-lactamases of extended spectrum, followed by Pseudomonas aeruginosa (13.6%) and Serratia marcescens (13.6%). The mortality rate was 14.8%. Pseudomonas aeruginosa was isolated in 3 of 4 patients who died. Conclusions: The most microorganisms belong to the group of Gram-negative and are usually linked to infections associated with health care.