“The morbidity for 2018 in the US was 157,500 for surgical site infections (SSI), with an estimated mortality of 8,205. 11% of all deaths in intensive care units were associated with SSI. It is a burden for the patient with an additional 11 days of hospitalization for each SSI and a burden to the system with an overall cost of $3.2 billion per year.”1
A collection of 50 PubMed citations has been compiled related to prevention of surgical site infections (SSIs). This material is an update to a 2018 post.
To read abstracts and access full text (where available), first go to Emory’s instance of PubMed and then click this URL. Look for the the 
“Find It @ Emory” button to access an article’s full text.
Additional Resources
- Access Surgery: Surgical Site Infections (book chapters)
- European Centre for Disease Prevention & Control: Surgical site infections
- Joint Commission International: Evidence-Based Principles and Practices for Preventing Surgical Site Infections
- UK National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) Guideline NG125: Surgical site infections: prevention and treatment
- World Health Organization: Preventing surgical site infections: implementation approaches for evidence-based recommendations
- Zabaglo M, Sharman T. Postoperative Wound Infection. 2020 Oct 1. In: StatPearls [Internet]. Treasure Island (FL): StatPearls Publishing; 2020 Jan–. PMID: 32809368.
Evidence Matters 