Update on the epidemiology and prevention of surgical site infections

Surgical site infections contribute significantly to the morbidity and mortality of the individual patient and impose a burden on the health care resources of the community. With the shift toward streamlined hospitalizations and ambulatory surgery, a majority of surgical site infections are being diagnosed after discharge. There are several tools available for identifying and risk stratifying patients that include the National Nosocomial Infections Surveillance system and the Study on the Efficacy of Nosocomial Infection Control index. If patients can be identified preoperatively, appropriate prophylactic measures and postdischarge surveillance can be undertaken, an underemphasized task faced by hospital systems today.