Risk factors for Surgical Site Infections in Vascular Procedures: A systematic review.

OBJECTIVE: To identify the risk factors that may lead to a higher incidence of Surgical Site Infection in patients undergoing vascular surgery reported in publications between 2018 and 2023 Methodology: A systematic review was carried out using the following guiding question: "In patients undergoing vascular surgery, what risk factors can lead to a higher incidence of Surgical Site Infection?". Data relevant to SSI in vascular procedures was selected. Four electronic databases were used: Virtual Health Library, PubMed Central, SciVerse Scopus, and EMBASE, with references published from 2018 to 2023. The risk of bias was assessed using Cochrane's RoB 2.0 tool for randomized clinical trials and JBI's "Checklist for cohort studies" for cohort studies Results: Of the 322 articles found in the initial search, 20 studies were selected for analysis. The studies came from 9 different countries and analyzed data from 49,309 patients undergoing vascular surgery. The mean incidence of SSI calculated from all studies was 11.02%. Fifty-two distinct risk factors were identified and classified by personal history, preoperative period, comorbidities, intraoperative and postoperative periods, and laboratory tests Conclusion: This systematic review identified several risk factors predisposing to SSI in vascular surgery, including diabetes and glycemic status; obesity; American Society of Anesthesiologists (ASA) index; and longer surgery time, which were some of the risk factors that led to a higher incidence of SSI. Of all the studies reviewed, none were conducted in the Global South.

DESCRIPTORS: Vascular Surgery, Risk Factors, Surgical Site Infection, Postoperative Complications.