763 Surgical Antibiotic Prophylaxis in Low-Income Settings: A Multicenter Study from Sudan

Abstract

Abstract Aim The study aims to evaluate surgical staff knowledge of the surgical antibiotic prophylaxis guidelines (SAP) and correlate it to demographic characteristics. Surgical antibiotic prophylaxis reduces surgical site infection rates (SSIs) which is a common preventable hospital acquired infection (HAI) that significantly affects patient’s, morbidity, mortality, hospital stay, readmission and health services costs. However, Adherence to SAP guidelines is sub-optimal, with knowledge being an important factor for its implementation. Method An observational, cross-sectional study was conducted in surgery units of five of Khartoum public hospitals from March to June 2022. The knowledge of the surgical staff was evaluated based-on the five international SAP criteria, which are “type of surgery, choice of antibiotic, timing, dose/redosing and postoperative continuation”. Data were collected through a two-section self-administered questionnaire using google forms and analysed with SPSS version 25. Results Out of 246 doctors requested to participate in this study, only 202 responded with a response rate of 82.5% and the majority were house officers 83 (41.1%). The overall knowledge was poor; 176 (85.1%) respondents had inadequate knowledge about SAP guidelines. A chi square analysis revealed significant association between the awareness of guidelines and level of practice and age group (P value =0.001). Conclusions This study revealed inadequate knowledge of surgical staff about SAP international guidelines. We need substantial efforts to be directed towards increasing staff Knowledge as well as proper implementation of SAP guidelines in order to reduce the incidence of SSI.