Surgical Site Infections (SSI): Prevalence and Management

Surgical site infections (SSIs) are defined as infections that occur 30 days after surgery (or 1 year after surgery in implant patients) and affect the surgical incisions or deep tissue at the site of surgery. Despite improvements in prevention, SSIs still pose a major clinical problem because they cause considerable mortality and morbidity and require huge amounts of health resources. Depending on surgical procedures, surveillance criteria used, and data collection quality, the incidence of SSI can be as high as 20%. In many SSIs, the responsible pathogens originate from the patient’s in-plant plant. The cause pathogens depend on the type of surgery; the most commonly isolated organisms are Staphylococcus aureus, Staphylococcus spp., Enterococcus spp., and Escherichia coli. Many factors related to the patient and procedure have an impact on the risk of SSI, so prevention requires a “set” approach that pays systematic attention to several risk factors to reduce the risk of bacterial contamination and improve the patient’s defense. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Guidelines for SSI Prevention emphasize the importance of patient preparation, aesthetic practice, and surgical techniques and also indicate antimicrobial prophylaxis under specific circumstances. Consequently, the emerging technologies, such as microbial sealing agents, offer the ability to enclose and immobilize the skin flora during surgery; it is therefore possible to evaluate such technologies and implement them in routine clinical practice.