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Objective:To know the rates of infection of the surgical wound in the Department of Neurosurgery between 2011 and 2014. Methods:An observational, prospective study was conducted of the rates of surgical wound infection among patients admitted for more than 48 h to the Neurosurgery Department of a tertiary-level university hospital between July 2011 and December 2014. Results:The study surveyed a total of 536 surgical procedures performed in 521 patients. The rate of diagnosed surgical site infection (SSI) was 4.85% (26 infections), below the established acceptable threshold of 5%. Of these, 65.38% were organ-space infections, 30.77% deep infections, and 7.69% superficial infections. Infection rates for each type of surgical procedure were 4.35% for spinal fusion, 0.00% for refusion of spine, 2.08% for laminectomy, 5.95% for ventricular shunt, and 5.14% for craniotomy. Antibiotic prophylaxis was evaluated as suitable in 80.22% of surgical procedures. Discussion and conclusions:Infection rates were lower when the surgery was elective, clean, the patient had a lower ASA, and when suitable antimicrobial prophylaxis was administered. The rate of suitable antimicrobial prophylaxis shows that there is room for improvement. In order to minimize the risk of surgical wound infection, all professionals involved in patient care need to know and apply current recommendations, especially those relating to proper hand hygiene and suitable antibiotic prophylaxis. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Objective: The patient safety culture (PSC) in health institutions depends on various organizational and human factors. Our aim was to evaluate, as a teaching strategy, the knowledge in patient safety and perceptions about the PSC., Methods: A convenience sample, with 122 health professionals from Regional Minister of Health's patient safety courses attendees in 2015. Be- fore each course, were delivered a knowledge questionnaire about patient safety (own elaboration) and a validated PSC questionnaire (estimating 3 dimensions: managerial support, perception of safety and expectations / actions). Valuations on CSP were recategorized in positive, negative and neutral, identifying strengths (greater than or equal to 75% of positive evaluations) and opportunities for improvement (greater than or equal to 50% of negative evaluations). At the end of each course an anonymous satisfaction questionnaire was delivered., Results: 60% responded correctly to questions about knowledge in patient safety, identifying areas for improvement in safe practices (hand hygiene and microorganisms resistant to antibiotics, with 66% and 61% of incorrect answers, respectively), and in management of health risks (investigation and identification of adverse events, with 62% and 56% of incorrect answers, respectively). 80% considered the institutional PSC positive, and the perception of safety as an opportunity for improvement (63.9% of negative evaluations). Thus, 88% admitted worrying about patient safety only after adverse incidents, and 65% felt afraid to talk about them. The satisfaction with the teaching methodology was 9.3 points out of 10., Conclusions: The overall assessment of PSC was mostly positive, identifying specific areas for improvement that allowed orienting the training in patient safety, motivating the participants and suggesting intervention strategies to improve patient safety in our organizations., Competing Interests: Disclosure The authors report no conflicts of interest in this work.