Surgical site infections in the Hospital patients - Guidelines can prevent them?
American Journal of Surgery - Volume 201, Issue 1 (January 2011)

Surgical site infections (SSIs) occur in more than 500,000 patients annually and result in increased length of hospital stay, readmissions, costs, and mortality in USA. [1] , [2] Up to 60% of SSIs have been estimated to be preventable, [3] , [4] , [5] largely by using recommended evidence-based guidelines such as timely and appropriate administration of antibiotics for prophylaxis and maintenance of perioperative normothermia. [3] , [6] , [7] , [8] A number of hospitals have reported decreased infection rates by improving utilization of these guidelines. [9] , [10] Furthermore, lack of compliance with these guidelines is associated with a significant increase in mortality.[11] Despite the evidence that these measures improve outcome, compliance with these guidelines is suboptimal in many hospitals, as demonstrated by data from large administrative databases and cohort studies. [9] , [12] , [13] , [14] Bratzler et al evaluated a random sample of 34,133 Medicare patients and found that only 56% of patients received antimicrobial therapy within 1 hour before incision and that only 40% had appropriate discontinuation of prophylactic antibiotics after 24 hours.[13] Based on poor compliance with these guidelines and the high morbidity and mortality of postoperative complications, the Surgical Care Improvement Project (SCIP) was developed as a collaborative effort to prevent infectious, thromboembolic, cardiac, and respiratory complications.[15]



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