Recent Advances in Management of Surgical Site Infection

Abstract

Until the middle of the 19th century, when Ignaz Semmelweis and Joseph Lister became the pioneers of infection control by introducing antiseptic surgery, most wounds became infected. Since then a number of significant developments, particularly in the field of microbiology have made surgery safer. In 1992, the united states center of disease control (U.S CDC) revised its definition of wound infection creating the definition surgical site infection (SSI) to prevent confusion between the infection of a surgical incision and the infection of a traumatic wound (Gottrup et al., 2005).

Surgical site infection is defined as an infection related to the operative procedure that occur at or near the surgical incision within 30 days of an operative procedure or within one year if an implant is left in place. They are classified into incisional and organ/space infection, the incisional type is sub classified into superficial incisional and deep incisional categories (Mustafa et al., 2007).

Surgical wound have been classified into four categories according to the theoretical number of bacteria that contaminate the