It may be safer for patients undergoing surgical breast procedures to go to an ambulatory surgery center rather than a hospital-based outpatient facility, according to a study in the journal Infection Control & Hospital Epidemiology on surgical site infection rates.
Researchers from the CDC and Atlanta-based Emory Clinic conducted a cohort study using National Healthcare Safety Network surgery site infection data for breast procedures from 2010 to 2014, a total of 110,987 procedures.
"Breast procedures performed in ASCs carried a lower risk of SSI compared with those performed in hospital-based outpatient settings," the study reads. The adjusted risk ratio was 0.36 for patients 51 years old and younger and 0.32 for patients older than 51.
"SSI risk following breast procedures was significantly lower among ASC patients than among hospital-based outpatients," the authors concluded, though they noted more research is necessary to understand the role procedural settings play in SSI risk.