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.

Thermal analysis in the drilling of solid rigid foam materials and ex-vivo bovine bones

Bone is a dynamic, highly vascularized tissue with a unique capacity to heal and regenerate without scarring. However, drilling remains a concern in several clinical procedures due to thermal damage of the bone and surrounding tissue. The success of this surgeries is dependent of many factors and also in temperature generation during the drilling bone. When an excessive heat is produced during the drilling, thermal necrosis can occur and the bone suffers injuries. Studies have shown that the increased temperature is directly related with the drilling parameters, particularly, the drill speed, feed-rate, applied force, the depth of cut, the geometry of the drill bit, the use or not of a cooling system and also the type of bone.