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Outpatient Surgery E-Weekly

Malpractice Verdicts Often Favor Physicians

Physicians come out on the winning end of 80% of malpractice claims that end in jury verdicts, according to researchers at Massachusetts General Hos...

Study: CT Colongraphy Effective in Finding Polyps

A CT-scan-based, laxative-free "virtual colonoscopy" may be as effective as standard colonoscopy in finding potentially cancerous polyps, according ...

Wrong-Site Prevention Video Shows the Right Way

Wrong-site, wrong-patient and wrong-procedure surgery must be prevented at all costs. The 3 steps of the Joint Commission's Universal Protocol make ...

Archive > August, 2011 Vol. XII, No. 8

What Caused This Surgical Site Infection?

Several breaches in practice turned a routine ACL repair into a Staphylococcus aureus infection.

Phenelle Segal, RN, CIC

Like a detective called to a crime scene, a surgery center recently summoned me to investigate a mysterious surgical site infection. How, they wanted to know, did a routine ACL repair on a 32-year-old male result in a Staphylococcus aureus infection? After retracing every step in the case and looking beyond the usual SSI suspects, we identified several breaches in practice that likely caused this infection. I first suspected a skin contamination, but all evidence pointed to the reprocessing room, where both the cleaning and the high-level disinfection practices were inadequate.

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