Inter-rater agreement of CDC criteria and ASEPSIS score in assessing surgical site infections after cesarean section: a prospective observational study

ObjectiveTo assess and compare the inter-rater agreement of the CDC criteria and the ASEPSIS score in identifying surgical site infections after cesarean section. MethodsProspective observational study including 110 patients subjected to a cesarean section at our institution. Surgical wounds were managed according to standard care and were photographed on the third, seventh, and thirtieth postoperative day or during any evaluation in case of complications. Three expert surgeons reviewed the prospectively gathered data and photographs and classified each wound using CDC criteria and the ASEPSIS score. The inter-rater agreements of CDC criteria and ASEPSIS score were determined with Krippendorff's Alpha with linear weights and compared with a confidence interval approach. ResultsThe weighted α coefficient for CDC criteria was 0.587 (95%CI, 0.411-0.763, p