Objective: This review will assess the effectiveness of care bundles to prevent surgical site infections (SSIs) among adults following a primary elective replacement of a weight-bearing joint (ankle, knee or hip). Introduction: Infection prevention following primary elective weight-bearing joint replacement is crucial for optimizing patient outcomes. Evidence suggests implementing preventive strategies/interventions reduces SSIs, however, the effectiveness of care bundles to prevent SSIs in adults receiving these procedures remains unclear. While there have been reviews on the effectiveness of interventions to prevent SSIs, specific reviews are needed to guide clinical care. Eligibility criteria: Studies published since 2010 investigating care bundles to prevent SSIs in adults receiving a primary, elective weight-bearing joint (knees, ankles, or hips) replacement will be included. A care bundle is defined as a set of best practice interventions, usually between 3 and 5 individual interventions. This review will consider superficial incisional and deep incisional SSIs as the primary outcomes. Experimental studies, cohort studies, and case-control studies will be included. Methods: The review will follow the JBI methodology for systematic reviews of effectiveness. The search will be conducted in CINAHL, MEDLINE, EMBASE, Emcare, and the Cochrane Library. Studies will be screened and critically appraised independently by 2 reviewers with any discrepancies resolved by a third reviewer. A JBI data extraction tool will be used to extract data. The results will be synthesized narratively and, if appropriate, a meta-analysis will be conducted. To assess the certainty of evidence, the Grading of Recommendations Assessment, Development and Evaluation (GRADE) approach will be used. Review registration: PROSPERO CRD42024622206
Bui et al. (Thu,) studied this question.