Surgical site infection following open lobectomy in patients with lung cancer: A prospective study

Objective To assess the incidence and risk factors of surgical site infection after open pulmonary lobectomy and to quantify their clinical and economic burden. Methods A prospective nested case‐control study was performed on patients with lung cancer who underwent open lobectomy in the lung cancer center of West China Hospital from January 2017 to December 2019. Demographic, clinical data and medical costs were recorded. Logistic regression was used to evaluate risk factors associated with surgical site infection. A Mann‐Whitney U test was carried out to evaluate the differences in medical costs. Results A total of 1395 patients were eligible, and the surgical site infection incidence was 13.47% (188/1395). Of the 188 instances of surgical site infection, 171 (90.96%) were classified as organ/space infection, 8 (4.25%) as superficial incisional infection and 9 (4.79%) as deep incisional infection. The patients with surgical site infection had significantly higher mortality (3.19% vs. 0.41%, p