INFECTION-RATES IN TRAUMA SURGERY - A SUR VEY BASED ON RECENT GERMAN DATA

Infection rates are important markers for clinical quality assurance. For internal control,they may only be used under the condition of homo geneous data collection and evaluation according to identical standard operating procedures during the entire investigation period. For inte r-hospital comparison,they may only be used if additionally the observ ed patient groups are well defined and comparable. A survey of the inf ection rates published during the last 6 years in the German traumatol ogical literature (n=71) indeed shows (concerning series later than 19 85) similar infection rates for procedures in less and in more problem atic anatomical regions and in clean and contaminated situations of ab out 2 - 3%, after open injuries sporadically max. 10%. Finally, it is demonstrated that conclusions concerning a general ''risk of infection '' based on infection rates for specific surgical procedures are not p ossible and vice versa. We strongly recommend the future application o f a standardized definition of wound infection. The differentiation be tween deep and superficial infection should be abandoned. For all ment ioned ''infection rates'' it should be indicated whether it is with re ference to the risk of infection of a specific procedure or only a gen eral statement.