2022 Volume 13 Issue 4 Pages 167-173
Background: Immediate breast reconstruction is increasingly performed; however, there are concomitant concerns regarding its complications, especially surgical site infections（SSI）. The incidence rate of breast implant infection at our hospital was 5.69%（55/967 breasts）between January 2010 and August 2014. Preventive measures were taken and their effectiveness was evaluated.
Methods: Immediate breast reconstruction with tissue expander（TE）insertion following mastectomy was performed on 1797 breasts between January 2010 and February 2018. Infection rates were compared between two groups, based on whether the surgery was done before or after the implementation of SSI preventive measures（September 2014）. The cases were further divided into those with or without SSI, and the correlation with various factors was examined.
Results: The incidence rate of SSI after September 2014 was 2.65%（22/830 breasts）, which was significantly lower than the comparison group（p = 0.001）. There were no significant differences between the two groups in the analysis for risk factors of SSI.
Conclusions: The infection rate of immediate breast reconstruction decreased from 5.69% to 2.65% after the implementation of preventive measures for SSI, suggesting that the measures were effective. The environment surrounding the treatment is constantly changing; thus, it is important to also update preventive measures.
