• Erlangga Yusuf, Sven Bamps, Bénédicte Thüer, Jan Mattheussen, Jean-Paul Ursi, Elke Del Biondo, Kris de Smedt, Raf Van Paesschen, Dirk Berghmans, Kaat Hofkens, Jef Van Schaeren, Tony van Havenbergh, and Bruno Van Herendael.
• Department of Medical Microbiology, GZA Hospitals, Wilrijk, Antwerp, Belgium.
• Neuromodulation. 2017 Aug 1; 20 (6): 563-566.

ObjectiveTo investigate the effect of a quality improvement project that resulted in an infection control bundle to reduce the number of spinal cord stimulator (SCS) infections.Materials And MethodsThe study was performed in a single center for neuromodulation from January 1, 2014, through May 31, 2016. In response to a high number of surgical site infections (SSIs) after SCS surgery, a multidisciplinary team analyzed the surgical process and developed an infection prevention bundle consisting of five items: 1) showering and decolonization for five days prior to surgery and showering in the hospital on the morning of surgery; 2) performing the SCS implantation as the first in the daily operating room (OR) program; 3) maintaining a minimal number of people in the OR; 4) providing home care nurses with a folder with SCS wound care instructions including pictures; 5) giving oral specific wound care instructions to patients. The number of infections was calculated for the baseline, implementation, and sustainability phases.ResultsA total of 410 SCS surgeries were performed during the study period. In the preintervention phase, 26/249 (10.4%) SCS surgeries were infected. During the implementation and sustainability phase, 2/59 (3.4%) and 1/102 (1.0%) SCS surgeries were infected, respectively. The reduction in the number of infections in pre and postintervention phase was statistically significant (p = 0.003).ConclusionMultidisciplinary measures to reduce SSIs reduced the number of SCS associated infections in our study setting.© 2017 International Neuromodulation Society.

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