Introduction: The aim of the study was to assess the effect of preoperative groin swab as one of the factors that eliminate a potential source of infection and allows preparing a patient for peripheral arterial reconstructive surgery.
Material and methods: In this study, bacteriological swabs from macroscopically intact groin skin were collected from 490 patients before planned operations of peripheral arterial reconstruction.
Results: A positive bacteriological swab from a macroscopically intact skin of the groin was obtained in 32 out of 490 patients (which represents 6.5% of all patients). In the collected material, methicillin-sensitive Staphylococcus aureus (MSSA) was found in twenty seven patients, methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) in one patient, group C beta-haemolytic Streptococcus in two patients and group G beta-haemolytic Streptococcus in two patients.
Conclusions: Preparing a patient for peripheral arterial reconstructive surgery requires an interdisciplinary approach. It involves an intensive treatment of comorbidities and eliminating potential sources of vascular graft infection. It is very important to prepare the skin of the operated area properly; therefore preoperative groin swabs should become an essential part of the diagnostic algorithm. This procedure will not only reduce the risk of vascular graft infection, amputation or death, but also allow avoiding the huge cost of treatment of such complications.