Prevalence of surgical site infection and its associated factors after cesarean section in Ethiopia: systematic review and meta-analysis

Surgical site infection (SSI) affects nearly one third of patients who have undergone a surgical procedure. It is a significant and substantial cause of surgical patient morbidity and mortality later with human and financial costs threat. There are fragmented and pocket studies which reported the prevalence of SSI among mothers who experienced for cesarean section and its risk factors. However, there is no any solid evidence established at the national level; which was also the interest of the authors to fill this gap. Therefore, this systematic review and meta-analysis aimed to estimate the pooled prevalence of SSI after cesarean section and its associated factors at national level.

Original articles were searched in PubMed, MEDLINE, EMBASE, CINAHL, Google Scholar, HINARI portal, and Cochrane Library. All observational studies defined outcome of variable “SSI as infection related to an operation procedure that occur at or near surgical incision within 30 days of operation or after one year if an implant is placed” were considered. Data were extracted using standard data extraction excel spread sheet checklists developed according to 2014 Joanna Briggs Institute Reviewers’ Manual after the quality was assessed through Newcastle–Ottawa quality assessment scale. The I² statistic was used to quantify heterogeneity across studies. Funnel plot asymmetry and Egger’s tests were used to check for publication bias. A fixed effect model was used to estimate the pooled prevalence of SSI. Odds Ratio (OR) with 95% Confidence Interval (CI) was also considered to determine the association of identified variables with SSI. Statistical analysis was conducted using STATA version 14 software.

From initial 179 identified articles, 11 were eligible for inclusion in the final systematic review and meta-analysis. Studies with a score of 6 and above were included for final analysis. All included studies were institutional based cross sectional. The pooled estimate of SSI after cesarean section in Ethiopia was 9.72% (95%CI: 8.38, 11.05). Premature rapture of membrane (PROM) > 12 h (OR = 5.32, 95%CI: 3.61, 7.83), duration of labor> 24 h (OR = 3.67, 95%CI: 2.45, 5.48), chorioamnionitis (OR = 9.11, 95%CI: 5.21, 15.93), anemia (OR = 4.56, 95%CI: 2.88, 7.22) and having vertical skin incision (OR = 4.17, 95%CI: 2.90, 6.02) had increased odds of developing SSI after cesarean section.

The prevalence of SSI after cesarean section in Ethiopia was high compared with the sphere standards of communicable disease control (CDC) guidelines for SSI after cesarean section. Therefore, Ministry of Health with its stake holders should give special emphasis on community and institution based programs in manner to prevent prolonged labor, PROM, chorioamnionitis and anemia which will also have synergistic impact on SSI after cesarean section. Moreover, there is also a call to health professionals not to use vertical incision as primary option of cesarean section to reduce the risk of developing surgical site infection among mothers.