Correlation of Serum Procalcitonin and Severity of Post-cesarean Wound Infection

Bacterial infection is primarily a clinical concept that may require the use of supportive bedside or laboratory tests to confirm or exclude. There are two broad factors that are always necessary to confirm the diagnosis: inflammation or systemic dysfunction and direct or indirect evidence of a compatible bacterial pathogen. Inflammation may be localized or result in a systemic inflammatory response syndrome (SIRS).

Infection handling and prevention are now improving with an effective antibiotic discovery, complete immunization and modern sanitation. However, infection remains the most common cause of morbidity and mortality rate in many health care services in the world.

One of the most often serious complications in surgical procedure is surgical site infection. Surgical site infection (SSI) is defined as the presence of liquid pus or abscess which extends on a wound within 30day (RCOG Press, 2008; Bratzlr et al.,2006). Surgical site infection is diagnosed with clinical and laboratory examination. The diagnosis begins with an inspection to check any pus, abscess or inflammation reaction extends on the surgical site. An open wound is also being checked, as well as pus liquid or abscess that leaks from thewound. Pus or tissue specimen should be taken for culture examination and routine blood count for leucocyte count should be investigated and procalcitonin level Procalcitonin (PCT) and leucocyte count are indicators of systemic infection. Procalcitonin is one of the applicable markers to detect bacterial infection in adults. Plasma PCT level is comparable with specific response of bacterial infection, particularly for invasive or probably-invasive bacteria. High concentration of PCT indicates sepsis, severe sepsis or even septic shock condition. It may also represent another possibility and gives additional information towards conventional clinical data. Some studies state that procalcitonin is better, or at least has the same diagnosis potency with another infection marker such as CRP, leukocytosis and fever