Summary
The research question being addressed in this study is “what is the main challenge faced by medical surgeons in the course of delivering care services to patients?” The search strategy for the required articles began by identifying the relevant medical databases such as Ebscohost, Elsevier, and Science Direct. Keywords such as surgical, site, infection, problems, challenges, and surgery were typed and searched through the available databases.
The designs used in the studies above were varied. For instance, in a study by Butterworth, Gilheany, and Tinley (2010), a standard patient questionnaire design was employed to obtain quantitative data for a period of six months. Lee et al. (2012) used a retrospective study design that ran for 28 days. This took place immediately after pediatric HSCT recipients had received an implant while Rajkumari et al (2014) used a retrospective observational study design. On the other hand, Tang, Fend, Chen, Zhang, Ji and Luo (2014) employed a randomized controlled trial study design. All the above research studies fall within the same level of evidence because they are quantitative research studies.
In regards to finding, a 3.1 % of infection rate was recorded (Butterworth et al., 2010). The authors also note that hospital readmissions accounted for about 0.25 percent of the infection rate. Tang et al (2014) found out that a closed blood conservation device can significantly reduce the transfer of infections. The other two studies also give similar findings. Hence, the studies fully answer the research question stated above.
All the samples used in the four studies were randomly selected. However, a sample size of 9 participants was rather low for a countrywide study cohort (Butterworth et al., 2010) because of the large population being represented. The screening method used to obtain final participants was a more effective sampling method in a study by Rajkumari et al (2014). This made it possible for the researchers on the most productive elements in the study.
Limitations of the studies included lack of variety in terms of research settings (Tang et al., 2014), inadequate or missing comparative studies, and poor exploration of all variables affecting the research studies (Butterworth et al., 2010). Subsequent studies can overcome these limitations by expanding the study zone, investigating both dependent and independent variables as well as using a fairly large sample size.
Based on the findings, the evidence found on this topic is indeed strong enough to suggest a change in medical-surgical practice to protect both surgeons and patients from being infected. Unless both parties are protected against infections during operations, then the medical process can be least beneficial.
References
Butterworth, P., Gilheany, M.F. & Tinley, P. (2010). Postoperative infection rates in foot and ankle surgery: A clinical audit of Australian podiatric surgeons, January to December 2007. Australian Health Review, 34(2), 180-185.
Lee, J. H., Jang, J., Lee, S. H., Kim, Y., Yoo, K. H., Sung, K., &… Koo, H. H. (2012). Respiratory viral infections during the first 28 days after transplantation in pediatric hematopoietic stem cell transplant recipients. Clinical Transplantation, 26(5), 736-740.
Rajkumari, N., Gupta, A. K., Mathur, P., Trikha, V., Sharma, V., Farooque, K., & Misra, M. C. (2014). Outcomes of surgical site infections in orthopedic trauma surgeries in a tertiary care centre in India. Journal Of Postgraduate Medicine, 60(3), 254- 259.
Tang, M., Fend, M., Chen, L., Zhang, J., Ji, P. & Luo, S. (2014). Closed Blood Conservation Device for Reducing Catheter-Related Infections in Children After Cardiac Surgery. Critical Care Nurse, 34(5), 53-61.