Etiological risk factors for infection in the postoperative period of cardiovascular surgery, integrative review.

Introduction: Recognizing the elements related to the risk for infection during the postoperative period of cardiovascular surgery is essential for guiding effective strategies and strengthening clinical judgment. Objective: To identify the etiological factors associated with the nursing diagnosis "risk for infection" during the postoperative period of cardiovascular surgery in the intensive care unit from the scientific literature. Materials and Methods: An integrative literature review based on the methodology of Whittemore and Knafl. The search was conducted between August and September 2024 in the Scopus, ScienceDirect, PubMed, and CINAHL databases. The controlled descriptors used were Risk Factors, Risk, Infection, Nursing Diagnosis, Cardiovascular Surgical Procedures, and Intensive Care Units. The uncontrolled terms used were Risk of Infection, Cardiac Surgery, and Cardiovascular Surgery in English, Spanish, and Portuguese. After quality assessment, 25 articles met the criteria for data extraction. Results: 36 etiological factors associated with the diagnosis "risk for infection" in the postoperative period of cardiovascular surgery were identified; of these, 14 were already described in NANDA-I, and 22 new factors are not included in this taxonomy. Discussion: The elements related to the reviewed diagnosis are grouped into three categories: patient antecedent factors, perioperative factors, and factors associated with the postoperative period in the ICU. Conclusion: The identification of new etiological factors associated with the diagnosis "risk for infection," specific to the target population, contributes to an understanding of the causality of this diagnosis and to determining nursing interventions based on the etiological factors identified during diagnostic reasoning.