The Effect of Preoperative 25-Hydroxy Vitamin D Supplement and Surgical Site Infection

Surgical site infection (SSI) is one of the most important complications of surgery and is known in quality improvement programs as a very important indicator for evaluating the performance of surgeons and hospitals. In recent studies, interesting effects for vitamin D such as antimicrobial effects, wound healing, immune regulation, etc. have been considered and the effectiveness of this vitamin on the above has been proven in laboratory environments and animal models. Therefore, the present study was designed and performed to evaluate the effect of vitamin D tablets before surgery on surgical site infection in patients referred to Shariati Hospital. This study was performed as a randomized controlled trial (RCT) on 200 patients who underwent surgery in Shariati Hospital in Tehran and in the general surgery department between 1397 and 1398. Patients were randomly assigned to two groups of 100 persons, including intervention and control. In all patients, vitamin D levels were measured and recorded 15 days before surgery. The intervention group included patients who received 2 tablets of fifty thousand units of vitamin D seven to ten days before the operation. The second group also included patients who did not undergo any intervention and only in order to maintain blindness of the same size and simultaneously with the first group. They received a placebo. Finally, all patients were followed at intervals of one, three, seven and thirty days after surgery and then compared to the extent of infection at the site of surgery and other desired variables. In this study, 200 persons with a mean age of 47.78 years were examined. 57.5% (115 persons) were female and the rest were male. Overall, 19 (9.5%) of the patients studied underwent surgery at the site of follow-up within one month of follow-up (14 in the control group and 5 in the intervention group). Detection between the two groups was observed in terms of infection (P=0.030). In general, based on the results of the analysis, in the present study, there was a statistically significant relationship between surgical site infection with low serum vitamin D level, increase in the number of hospital days, female gender, wound classification, ASA class of patients and vitamin D consumption before surgery. (P<0.05). The results of this study showed that there is a significant relationship between surgical site infection and consumption of edible vitamin D as well as serum vitamin D levels before surgery so that vitamin D deficiency can be considered as an independent risk factor for infection. Hospitals were considered, including surgical site infections. Therefore, performing preoperative tests as well as performing the required interventions can be very effective in improving this index and reducing surgical site infections.