Risk Factors for Infection on Drainage Set after Implants or Expander Transplantation

OBJECTIVE To study the risk factors related to the infection in the patients with the breast implant and soft tissue expander postoperatively,such as the time of drainage and retro-irrigation.METHODS Thirty consecutive patients who underwent breast implants and soft tissue expander involving at least two sites and set negative pressure drainage tube were studied.For each patient with drainages at two sites,one was retro-irrigated during the early stage postoperatively,the other was not.The samples were from the skin out of the drainage tube,the drainage tube out of skin and the end of drainage after 2,4,6 and 8 days of the operation and at the time of removing the tube.Total samples were tested for bacteriology.RESULTS Samples were divided into two groups: common groups and retro-irrigated group with negative pressure drainage.A total of samples from each group for bacterial test were 170.The postive rate was 2.94% and 1.76%,respectively(P=0.474).The positive rate of bacterial test was closely related to the time at all 3 different sampling sites(P0.05).CONCLUSIONS The time of the drainage tube set is the important factor that leads to infection.With the strict asepsis procedure,retro-irrigation will not increase the infection rate.