Equipping Surgeons with SSI Solutions at their Fingertips

NEWTOWN, Pa. -- Surgical site infections (SSIs) continue to be a serious complication of surgery. Throw in the growing threat of MRSA and other drug-resistant bacteria and surgical infections are the culprits for longer hospital stays (which in turn lead to a greater threat of hospital-acquired infections), rising demands for patient care, and skyrocketing healthcare costs.

Surgeons and their staff are evermore faced with these challenges. They need to consider implications of not just antibiotic usage, but also wound care and preparation, and incision of infected areas. Complicating their jobs further, an aging population and the obesity/diabetes epidemic present higher risk factors for SSIs especially in patients undergoing colon and gastric surgeries, which face higher infection rate to begin with (according to a June 2008 article in the American Journal of Infection Control). Additionally SSIs are the most frequent cause of morbidity and mortality of hospital-acquired infections.

A Philadelphia area publisher, Handbooks in Health Care Company, believes it has a pocket-sized solution for surgical specialists, residents, and staff around the world who need to be more conscious than ever about the killer infections. Handbooks in Health Care has teamed up with leading surgical expert and past-president of Surgical Infection Society (SIS) Michael West, MD, to publish a ground-breaking pocket guide titled, Contemporary Guide to Surgical Infections™.

West notes, "I have talked to so many surgical residents and other staff and the antibiotic guides they currently use only address dosages and antibiotic uses but don't address a way to put that information into perspective for treating surgical patients. So if the surgical interventions are not performed optimally even the best antibiotics won't work."

According to E. Patchen Dellinger, MD, who led IDSA's last SSI treatment guidelines initiative over a decade ago, says that West, along with his contributing authors, has struck a nice balance between a brief, practical handbook that is easy to use (for surgical staff), and the book, which is small enough to fit in a white labcoat pocket, is extensive enough that most surgical practitioners will rarely find themselves seeking a more comprehensive text.

Handbooks in Health Care Company publishes a line of pocket-sized medical handbooks written by top experts on a wide variety of clinical care topics. All HHC books retail for under $25 a copy. To learn more about the Contemporary Guide to Surgical Infections™ visit http://tinyurl.com/Surgical-Infections

Source: Handbooks in Health Care Company