Protocol: Enhanced PeriOperative Care and Health protection programme for the prevention of surgical site infections after elective abdominal surgery (EPOCH): study protocol of a randomised controlled multicentre superiority trial

摘要

Surgical site infections (SSI) are a common postoperative complication. During the development of the new WHO guidelines on SSI prevention, also in the Netherlands was concluded that perioperative care could be optimised beyond the current standard practice. We selected a limited set of readily available, cheap and evidence-based interventions from these new guidelines that are not part of standard practice in the Netherlands and formulated an Enhanced PeriOperative Care and Health bundle (EPOCH). Here, we describe the protocol for an open-label, randomised controlled, parallel-group, superiority trial to test the effect of the EPOCH bundle added to (national) standard care in comparison to standard care alone on the incidence of SSI.