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ABSTRACT
Most patients have been noticed to have wound breakdown after surgery which results in long stay of patients in hospitals. This wound breakdown could be associated with aseptic technique practices such as use of unsterile instrument during or after surgery, not paying proper attention to dressing procedure or lack of compliance on the part of patients such as rejecting to take, not accepting wound dressing. The study was conducted to assess the operated wound breakdown among in-patients in surgical ward in a tertiary hospital in Benin. The objectives of the study were to determine rate of operated wound breakdown, to ascertain the preoperative factors of operated wound breakdown and to determine the actual time of onset of the operated wound breakdown. A descriptive cross-sectional survey design was used for the study. The subjects of the study consisted of all the one hundred and twenty six in patients in the surgical wards in a tertiary hospital in Benin. Due to the small population size, the entire in- patients in the surgical wards were used for the study, hence no sampling was made. Well-constructed questionnaires were administered to in-patients and 126 questionnaires were retrieved. Demographic data was analyzed using descriptive statistics- frequency and percentages. Chi-square was used to test for relationship between preoperative factors of operated wound breakdown and actual time of onset of operated wound breakdown.
The study showed that majority 70 (55.6%) had wound breakdown while 56 (44.4%) did not have wound breakdown. Furthermore, majority 86(68.3%) of the respondents said that infection is responsible for wound breakdown, 20(15.8%) of the respondents were of the opinion that both systemic disease and anaemia are responsible for wound breakdown while none of the respondents were of the opinion that age ( above 65 years) is responsible for wound breakdown. Moreover, majority 86(68.3%) of the respondents said that the actual time of onset of operated wound breakdown is 30 days and above after the surgery while 40(31.7%) said the actual time of onset was 13 – 29 days after the surgery. There was a significant relationship between the preoperative risk factors of operated wound breakdown and the actual time of onset of operated wound breakdown (p=0.001). The study concluded that the rate of operated wound breakdown was high and that infection, anaemia were the preoperative risk factors. The study therefore recommends that development of clinical pathways would prove valuable if the absolute risk of each patient could be estimated when planning surgery to specifically optimize the patient’s preoperative condition to reduce the risk of complications.
Keywords: Assessment, operated wound breakdown and in-patients.
