An overview of postoperative wound care: surgical wound dehiscence

To identify early if a surgical wound is at risk of postoperative complications, RVNs need to be aware of risk factors that can increase complication rates for the patient before any surgery is...

Care bundles to reduce surgical site infections and promote positive outcomes

SSIs affect large numbers of veterinary patients each year and are infections that occur at, or near, to the surgical site up to 30 days post surgery, or up to 1 year after implants have been placed...

Perioperative hypothermia and surgical site infections part 2

In animal physiology it is known that a reduction in core temperature of 1–1.5°C occurs shortly after the induction of general anaesthesia due to the re-distribution of heat from the core to the...

Perioperative hypothermia and surgical site infections part 1

Healthy, conscious animals respond to heat loss via temperature sensitive cells in the hypothalamus which initiate a response such as shivering and vasoconstriction (Murison, 2001).