Investigation of the effect of plastic drape used during the surgery to the surgical site infection

This study was conducted to investigate the effect of plastic drape on surgical site infection in patients undergoing appendicitis surgery. The data of this quasi-experimental study with pre-test, post-test and control group were collected between February 15th, 2019 and May 31st, 2019 from the patients in the 20-60 age group, who admitted to Harran University Research and Application Hospital for appendectomy (peopled of 65 years of age were excluded due to poor immune system in the elderly). According to the sample selection formula for known study population, 60 patients were included in the study sample. In the first 30 patients, as the control group, the surgical site was only stained with antiseptic solution povidone iodine at the operating table. In the second 30 patients, the experimental group, the surgical site was stained with povidone iodine and covered with sterile adhesive cover at the operation table. The patients in the study sample were scheduled to remain hungry 8 hours before the surgery and total parenteral nutrition was started in the delayed surgery, but in the case of emergency surgery, a nasogastric catheter was inserted in the operating room. After the surgery, the incision site care was performed with povidone iodine (10%) with 48 hours intervals. Data were collected by face-to-face interviews, through medical records or surgical clinical records and laboratory findings. The data were analyzed using the SPSS 17 program, using numbers and percentages, chi-square and t-test. p<0.05 was considered statistically significant in all tests. There was no difference between experimental and control groups in terms of patient diagnostic features and infection findings (redness, temperature increase, edema, body temperature) 2 and 15 days after the surgery. No signs of infection were found in both groups. According to the results obtained, there was no significant difference between the control group and the experimental group, where the plastic adhesive cover was used, similar to the literature. Since the study was conducted with 30 controls and 30 patients in the experimental group, it is recommended that further studies should be carried out with a larger sample in different abdominal surgery cases using plastic adhesive cover.