Recent developments in the prevention of surgical site infections: preoperative screening and postoperative surveillance.
The purpose of this review is to cover the literature on the prevention of postsurgical infections in the period January 2002 to May 2003. Only articles that address novel insights in the prevention of infections are included in this review. The most interesting findings were observed in preoperative screening of patients for nasal carriage of Staphylococcus aureus. Eradication of Staphylococcus aureus in nasal carriers resulted in reduction of postsurgical nosocomial infections due to (endogenous) S. aureus infections. Furthermore, postoperative surveillance studies revealed insight in the incidence of surgical site infections, showed the use of risk indices and identified risk factors important for the development of postsurgical infections.
St. Elisabeth Hospital Tilburg, Laboratory of Clinical Microbiology, Tilburg, the Netherlands.
Inge Hm
IH
van Loo
Peter Hj
PH
van Keulen
Jan Ajw
JA
Kluytmans
D000818:Animals; D006801:Humans; D007430:Intraoperative Care; D008991:Monitoring, Physiologic; D011182:Postoperative Care; D011300:Preoperative Care; D013530:Surgical Wound Infection / Q000517:prevention & control*