Glenn et al: Evaluation of a client questionnaire at diagnosing surgical site infections in an active surveillance system
Veterinary Surgery 8, 2024

🔍 Key Findings

• Algorithm 3 had the highest overall accuracy (95.5%) in diagnosing SSIs from client questionnaires.
• Active surveillance identified 19.4% more SSIs compared to passive surveillance alone.
• SSI rate was 8.22% across 754 surgeries; 33.9% of SSIs required revision surgery.
• Client-based responses were 37.9% more frequent than those from referring veterinarians.
• Deep/implant SSIs could be missed if not associated with visible wound healing problems.
• Two late SSIs (after 90 days) occurred, both linked to implant surgeries.
• Algorithm 1 was the most sensitive (87.1%) but less specific; useful for screening.
• Algorithm 2 had the highest specificity (97.9%); useful as a “rule-in” diagnostic method.