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Guideline for Prevention of Surgical Wound Infections

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2015

Bryan P. Simmons
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Extract

Patients who undergo a surgical operation are at high risk of having one or more nosocomial infections. These infections develop in more surgical patients (8%) than in any other patient group, and about 70% of all nosocomial infections throughout the hospital develop in patients who have an operation. Most infections in surgical patients, however, are not related to the wound but to instrumentation of the urinary and respiratory tracts. Thus, personnel who take care of these patients should be aware of measures to prevent nosocomial infections at all sites. Moreover, to prevent surgical wound infections, personnel who perform the operation must take the lead in instituting prevention measures, because the most important measures involve use of good surgical technique and are not easily instituted simply by making changes in hospital policy.

Type
Research Article
Information
Infection Control & Hospital Epidemiology , Volume 3 , supplement S2: CDC Guideline for Prevention of Surgical Wound Infections , April 1982 , pp. 188 - 196
Copyright
Copyright © The Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America 1982

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