Infecciones en cirugía de artroplastía de cadera: Resultados del sistema de vigilancias epidemiológica de las infecciones intrahospitalarias. 1996-1999

109INFECTIONS IN HIP ARTHROPLASTY: RESULTS OF THENOSOCOMIAL INFECTIONS SURVEILLANCE SYSTEM OF CHILE.1996-1999Epidemiological surveillance of nosocomial infections in hip arthroplastywas established in chilean hospitals in 1996. Between 1996 and 1999 the surveillancesystem reported, in 28 hospitals, 134 infections in 3.889 operations, with acummulative rate of 3.5%. Epidemiological surveillance in Chile does notdifferentiate infections of the surgical wound from infections of the hip replacementitself, and the period of follow up is during hospital stay after surgery. The mostfrequent etiological agents were non fermentative Gram negative bacilli (33.3%),mainly Acinetobacter baumannii. Gram positive cocci represented 23.8% of theetiologies. Hospitals with higher mean number of operations had lower rates(5.0% in hospitals with low surgical volume and 2.9% in hospitals with highervolume). The findings of the surveillance system suggest some risk factors thatrequire further research, such as the duration of preoperative hospital stay andexperience of the surgical center.Key words: Nosocomial infection, Arthroplasty, Epidemiological surveillance.EPIDEMIOLOGIA