Identifying potential predictors of surgical site infection risk following cardiac surgery: a scoping review

Charlwood, Katie V; Jackson, Joni; Vaja, Ricky; Rogers, Luke J; Dawson, Sarah; Moawad, Karim R; Brown, Joshua; Trevis, Jason; Vokshi, Ismail; Layton, Georgia R; Magboo, Rosalie; Tanner, Judith; Rochon, Melissa; Murphy, Gavin J; Whiting, Penny

Abstract

Objectives: This scoping review was undertaken to identify risk prediction models and pre-operative predictors of surgical site infection (SSI) in adult cardiac surgery. A particular focus was on the identification of novel predictors that could underpin the future development of a risk prediction model to identify individuals at high risk of SSI, and therefore guide a national SSI prevention strategy.

Methods: A scoping review to systematically identify and map out existing research evidence on pre-operative predictors of SSI was conducted in two stages. Stage 1 reviewed prediction modelling studies of SSI in cardiac surgery. Stage 2 identified primary studies
and systematic reviews of novel cardiac SSI predictors.

Results: The search identified 7887 unique reports; 7154 were excluded at abstract screening and 733 were selected for full-text assessment. Twenty-nine studies (across 30 reports) were included in Stage 1 and reported the development (N¼14), validation (N¼13), or both development and validation (N¼2) of 52 SSI risk prediction models including 67 different pre-operative predictors. The remaining 703 reports were reassessed in Stage 2; 49 studies met the inclusion criteria, and 56 novel pre-operative predictors that have not been assessed previously in models were identified.

Citation

Charlwood, K. V., Jackson, J., Vaja, R., Rogers, L. J., Dawson, S., Moawad, K. R., Brown, J., Trevis, J., Vokshi, I., Layton, G. R., Magboo, R., Tanner, J., Rochon, M., Murphy, G. J., & Whiting, P. (2025). Identifying potential predictors of surgical site infection risk following cardiac surgery: a scoping review. Journal of Hospital Infection, 157, 29-39. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhin.2024.12.002

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Dec 4, 2024
• Online Publication Date: Dec 14, 2024
• Publication Date: 2025-03
• Deposit Date: Dec 11, 2024
• Publicly Available Date: Dec 15, 2025
• Journal: Journal of Hospital Infection
• Print ISSN: 0195-6701
• Electronic ISSN: 1532-2939
• Publisher: Elsevier
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 157
• Pages: 29-39
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhin.2024.12.002
• Keywords: Cardiac surgery; surgical site infection; risk prediction; scoping review
• Public URL: https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/42835790
• Publisher URL: https://www.journalofhospitalinfection.com/article/S0195-6701(24)00404-3/fulltext
• Additional Information: This article is maintained by: Elsevier; Article Title: Identifying potential predictors of surgical site infection risk following cardiac surgery: a scoping review; Journal Title: Journal of Hospital Infection; CrossRef DOI link to publisher maintained version: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhin.2024.12.002; Content Type: article; Copyright: © 2024 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Ltd on behalf of The Healthcare Infection Society.