Audit-based protocol cut SSI after equine exploratory celiotomy

Exploratory celiotomy in horses carries a well-known risk of surgical site infection, but a new retrospective study suggests a structured surgical audit can sharply reduce that burden when a hospital identifies and fixes breakdowns in perioperative practice. In Veterinary Surgery, researchers from North Carolina State University and Clemson University reported that after an internal review of exploratory celiotomy cases at the NCSU Veterinary Teaching Hospital, the hospital’s surgical site infection rate fell from 29% in 2020 to 2.3% after a new standard operating protocol was introduced in 2021. The study reviewed 448 horses treated for acute abdominal pain between 2019 and 2024 and framed the intervention as a quality-improvement response to a sudden spike in infections and related complications. (pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov)

Why it matters: For veterinary professionals, the paper is less about a single product or drug change and more about process control. The authors describe surgical audit, staff engagement, and continuous monitoring as the core tools that helped uncover procedural deficiencies and improve outcomes without adding expensive technology or ICU capacity. That’s notable in equine surgery, where prior literature has placed surgical site infection rates after exploratory celiotomy anywhere from roughly 10% to 42%, and where other recent work has questioned whether extended antimicrobial protocols alone meaningfully reduce complications. (pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov)

What to watch: Whether other equine referral hospitals adopt similar audit-based infection-control frameworks, and whether prospective studies can identify which elements of these bundled interventions drive the biggest reduction in infection risk. (pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov)