Surgical site infections (SSIs) are the most common and costly of all hospital-acquired infections, accounting for 20% of all HAIs. They occur in an estimated 2% to 5% of patients undergoing inpatient surgery, causing between 160,000 and 300,000 infections that cost up to $10 billion a year to treat.
The CDC issued long-awaited recommendations for preventing SSIs. The document covers 14 areas of surgical care and offers 12 “strong” recommendations. Of these,