Prevention of surgical site infections

Surgical site infections (SSIs) may affect up to 40% of patients post-operatively depending on the type of operation. They are a burden both for the patient and the healthcare system due to the valuable resources they consume, with each colorectal SSI costing the National Health Service (NHS) on average £10,523 per patient. SSIs can be classified as superficial, deep and/or organ space, and there are many modifiable and non-modifiable risk factors. There has been recent published guidance on SSI prevention by a number of international organizations including the World Health Organization (WHO) in 2016, the Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in 2017 and the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) in 2020.