The Cardiac Recovery Room: Surgical Site Infection and Prevention

In this episode of The Cardiac Recovery Room, moderator Amanda Rea, a nurse practitioner and Lead of Advanced Practice and Clinical Program Manager in the Division of Cardiac Surgery at the University of Maryland St. Joseph Medical Center in Townson, Maryland, USA, spoke with Cheryl Crisalfi, coordinator nurse at Baystate Medical Center, Springfield, Massachusetts, USA, about surgical site infection and prevention.

Chapters 

00:00 Intro 

01:13 SSI Turnkey Order Set 

02:20 Risk Factors 

03:15 Mitigation Efforts 

06:17 Antibiotics 

08:17 Preop Patient Prep 

08:56 Intraop Measures 

10:14 Role of Culture 

10:52 Postop Priorities 

11:52 Dressings 

12:11 Patient Education 

13:29 Post-Hospital Prevention 

14:43 SSI Prevention 

They explore turnkey order sets and its goals, as well as the patient risk factors that increase susceptibility to surgical site infections. They detail essential mitigation strategies, emphasizing both surgeon-led interventions and patient-directed actions, such as smoking cessation and glycemic control. Furthermore, they discuss clinical protocols—including screening for staphylococcus nasal colonization and appropriate antibiotic administration—as well as key intraoperative measures to maintain a sterile field and minimized operating room contamination. Finally, they emphasize the importance of patient education and follow-up care.

The Cardiac Recovery Room is the place to hear the conversations colleagues are having after the meetings. Each month, a new episode featuring a leadership panel from the ERAS Cardiac Society is released.  

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