COMPARISON OF POSTOPERATIVE SURGICAL SITE INFECTION AFTER PREOPERATIVE MARKING DONE WITH NON-STERILE STATIONARY GRADE MARKERS VERSUS STERILE SURGICAL MARKERS

Objectives: To compare the frequencies of postoperative surgical site infection after preoperative marking done with non-sterile stationary grade markers versus sterile surgical markers in the same patient. Design: Randomized control trial. Place and Duration of Study: The department of Plastic surgery, Mayo hospital, Lahore from August 2013 to August 2014. Methods: This study was conducted after taking approval from the departmental ethical committee. Forty consecutive patients were included. A sterile surgical marker was used to mark one incision site while an alcohol based stationary grade marker was used to mark another incision site on the same patient. A standard preoperative, intraoperative and postoperative protocol was followed. Cultures were performed on swabs taken from the incision sites and surgical site infection was assessed for 30 days. Results: The study included 40 patients; 17 males and 23 females. The mean age of subjects was 25.32 +/- 19.69 years with the minimum age being 2 years and the maximum being 63 years. No growth was seen in cultures taken from all the incision sites after skin preparation in the non sterile stationary grade marker group as well as the sterile surgical grade marker group. Also no surgical site infection appeared during the 30 day postoperative observation period in the non sterile stationary grade marker group as well as the sterile surgical grade marker group. Conclusion: We recommend the use of non-sterile stationary grade markers for the purpose of preoperative surgical site marking as we found no difference in the rate of postoperative surgical site infection in both the non sterile stationary grade marker and the sterile surgical grade marker groups.