Surgical site infection surveillance

Surgical site infection (SSI) is the third most commonly reported nosocomia l infection and accounts for 14-16% of all nosocomial infections among hosp ital inpatients. A successful SSI surveillance programme includes standardi zed definitions of infection, effective surveillance methods and stratifica tion of the SSI rates according to risk factors associated with the develop ment of SSI. Surveillance with feedback of information to surgeons and othe r relevant staff has been shown to be an important element in the overall s trategy to reduce the numbers of SSIs. This paper examines the essential co mponents of a SSI surveillance system including surveillance methods, data collection and handling, analysis and presentation of results to clinical s taff (C) 2000 The Hospital Infection Society.