I’m going to have surgery on my shoulder soon and I’m paranoid about staph infections. This paranoia comes about from a friend of mine who had this same surgery and spent the next three years fighting a returning staph infection he recieved as a bonus during his surgery.
Can I look anywhere on the net to find out if this particular surgeon or the ‘Surgery Center’ he works out of has had a history of this sort of problem? Or are doctors pretty good at keeping that sort of thing under wraps?
Well, as far as I know, infection rates are not made public. There is a movement afoot to change that- see www.consumersunion.org/campaigns/stophospitalinfections/learn.html.
I think (but don’t know for sure) that many infections at surgical sites are caused by organisms that are on your skin already, and are introduced into the surgical wound during the surgical proceedure, as opposed to the organisms being on the surgeon or surgical instruments. Ideally these organisms would be reduced or eliminated during the surgical prep with betadine or whatever.
Things you can do to reduce your infection risk would to be sure the healthcare workers Wash Their Hands before approaching your post surgical wound for examination or dressing changes.
Good lucjkon your surgery.
Although there are some places that are surgical cesspits, they are very, very much the exception.
If someone contracts a staph infection after surgery it is FAR more likely that it was, as mentioned, from germs already on their skin, or that they were exposed to post-op.
Overall, infections are rare - but they are a risk in ANY surgery. It’s not just a matter of what’s dwelling on your skin or what may have wandered into the therapeutic setting - it is also possible to be harboring an infection that is “sub-clinical”, that is, not causing obvious symptoms, that the stress of surgery allows to blossom into full, gory glory.
Most likely, your surgery will go well and you won’t have any infection problem. However, after surgery be sure to keep an eye out for fever or any other sign of infection and, if you find it, see a doctor immediately!.
They are but the process will never dig every nasty bug out of your skin.
They will usually don a new set of exam gloves in your room before touching you. IIRC they will often use the sterile gloves when doing wound care of any kind as opposed to the regular exam gloves.
Infection control is serious business and hospitals either take it seriously or get sued out of existence or have accredation pulled in pretty short order.
Your chances of picking up a nasty bug from the actual instruments used is pretty much nil, the stuff that isn’t disposable gets autoclaved, which will kill stuff that make cockroaches jealous with their survival skills.
When you speak of a long patient treatment course for surgical site infection, SSI, you most likely are talking about Methicillin Resistant Staph Aureus, not just a staph infection. Taking a shower with a surgical scrub the morning of surgery(IE Hibiclens) is one of the best proven ways to reduce SSIs. Pub Med, the online medical database, has more abstracts on this topic than you would wish to read.
For what it’s worth, when I was recently hospitalized with a MRSA, every single health care worker put on a new set of gloves when they so much as looked at my wound. I discussed this with a couple of them, and was told that this was procedure with all wounds. I’m not sure if that was just applicable to that hospital or if it’s recommended for all hospitals. Most of the workers, though, seemed interested in providing me with the best care that they could. I know that there are disgruntled and uncaring hospital employees, but I think that they are in the minority.
Sure, you need to look out after your own interests and know what should and shouldn’t be done, but you’ll probably be all right.
I am surprised no one has really mentioned this. There is risk in ANY surgury. That your friend got Staph is meaningless. I knew someone who died in a car accident - most people do, even if only anecdotally - but you don’t hem and haw about getting in a car! Risk is just part of life.
Any hospital in the first world is going to have good procedures for hygene. Your friend just got unlucky. It’s a shame, but yes, it might happen to you as well. The only realistic alternative is to not get the surgury done. Live with your shoulder problem for the rest of your life, or risk surgury? If you lived in Antartica and the only person who could perform surguy was your mate the diesel mechanic, then sure, consider carefully.
There are people who don’t get immunized, as well, cos one in 60,000 people develop complications. Sheesh.
abby
You also don’t need to have surgery to acquire a nasty staph infection.
In fact, on one thread here on the Dope I recounted a nasty infection I got from resistant S. aurens that resulted in surgery, rather than being caused by it. Yes, they practiced very stringent infection-control procedures with me on that one - not just for my sake, but to prevent staff from contracting an infection as well. I got better.
Infections ARE treatable. Obviously, it’s better to avoid them in the first place, but they do occur and there are effective procedures for dealing with 99.999% of cases.
If you have concerns ask your doctor or even one of the OR nurses - in an OR the nurses have a great deal of responsibility for keeping sterile and non-sterile separate, while the docs concentrate on the surgery itself. Since most people take some pride in what they do, they may be happy to tell you the procedures for keeping you safe.