Methods We used a structured observational method to collect data about infection control practices amongst surgeons, anaesthetists, nurses, cardiopulmonary bypass technicians and orderlies practicing in the cardiac operating room during open-heart surgery at Mater Dei Hospital. To prevent bias, we did not disclose the actual procedures observed to the surgical team members, who however knew th...

BACKGROUND In August 2011, the German Protection against Infection Act was amended, mandating the reporting of healthcare associated infection (HAI) outbreak notifications by all healthcare workers in Germany via local public health authorities and federal states to the Robert Koch Institute (RKI). OBJECTIVE To describe the reported HAI-outbreaks and the surveillance system's structure and ca...

In a series of 420 ascending aortic cannulations for cardiopulmonary bypass, major complications occurred in three patients. Aortic dissection occurred in one patient believed to be due to aortic cross-clamping. Avoidance of this manceuvre is suggested when the aorta is grossly atheromatous. Two patients developing false aneurysms due to mediastinal infection are described. Prevention of medias...

Reprinted with permission, Healthcare Purchasing News, April 2017 Sepsis, a serious condition that arises from the body’s response to infection, can cause tissue damage, organ failure, and death. According to the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality’s Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project, sepsis is the leading cause of deaths in U.S. hospitals, at a cost of $23,663,000.1 The Sepsis All...

EDITORIAL Table 1 summarizes recommendations based on the presented papers. To prevent infection, it is critical to identify high-risk patients and control those risks prior to surgery. Action must be taken at every step of the surgical process, from preoperative to postoperative protocols, including intraoperative measures. In this Editorial some recent issues that surgeons should explor...

Mafraq Hospital performs an average of 10,000 surgeries every year. The impact of having high volume high risk surgical procedures calls for the need to ensure safe surgery and a prevention of surgical site infection (SSI). SSI represents a significant portion of healthcare-associated infections (HAIs). The impact on morbidity, mortality, and cost of care has resulted in identifying the need to...

Healthcare associated infections (HCAI) are often caused by micro-organisms that are not transmissible in the classical sense but which take advantage of breaches in the hosts defences against infection (e.g. bowel flora causing wound infection after surgery, skin organisms causing bloodstream infection via a vascular device). Microorganisms that cause HCAI may be derived from the patients’ own...

OBJECTIVE To evaluate the trend of mupirocin resistance in MRSA, isolated at the Clinical Microbiology Laboratory of a tertiary care hospital. METHODS A total of 200 MRSA strains recovered over a 2 year period from various body sites were tested using the 5 and 200 microg discs of mupirocin to detect its resistance. RESULTS High level and low level mupirocin resistance were detected in zero...

The hospital is a place for people to get treatment and health services, expect the best treatment. However, due high rate of Healthcare-Associated Infections (HAIs) in hospitals, workers must be able take Infection Prevention Control (PPI) measures; but workload, work environment, motivation, attitudes drive performance nurses providing nursing care, which can have an impact on implementation ...