Background: Surgical site infection (SSI) poses a serious threat in Neurosurgery. The mere presence of SSI would warrant a prompt medical and/ or surgical intervention for the outcome is very poor. This study aims to establish whether a pre-operative hospital stay of >7 days & other risk factors predisposes to surgical site infections. Methods: Retrospective, cross-sectional study of all pediatric patients who underwent clean neurosurgical procedures for the first time from January 1, 2011- June 30, 2014, in the Philippine General Hospital. The primary outcome was the development of a surgical site infection within 30 days from spine surgery or 90 days from intracranial surgery. Univariate and multivariate logistic regression analyses were performed to show the association of demographic and clinical factors with the development of SSI. Results: 279 medical charts were available for review. Median age was 1 year(5 days to 18 years old). The overall prevalence rate of SSI was 11.26%. Patients with >7 days pre-operative hospital stay had an incidence rate for SSI of 76.47% compared to 23.53% in patients with <7 days pre-operative hospital stay (OR 1.61, CI 0.68-3.84, p=0.280). Conclusions The incidence of SSI is high compared to other centers. There was no association of preoperative hospital stay with SSI. The association was significant only for the history of nosocomial infection. Early pre-operative clearance and surgery are recommended. Further prospective studies and surveillance are warranted
Surgical Wound Infection ; Cross Infection