Preventing surgical site infections: A surgeon's perspective

Wound site infections are a major source of postoperative illness, accounti ng for approximately a quarter of all nosocomial infections. National studi es have defined the patients at highest risk for infection in general and i n many specific operative procedures. Advances in risk assessment compariso n may involve use of the standardized infection ratio, procedure-specific r isk factor collection, and logistic regression models. Adherence to recomme ndations in the 1999 Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines should reduce the incidence of infection in surgical patients.