Did you know that surgical site infections are the most common type of infection in the U.S., occurring in 5 percent of all surgery patients, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control? That equals more than half a million patients that will develop a surgical site infection after having a surgical procedure.

Surgical Site Infection, Defined

The general medical definition of a surgical site infection (SSI) is an infection that develops within 30 days after a surgery was performed.

Why Should We Care About Surgical Site Infections?

According to Infection Control Today, patients who get an SSI require a substantial amount of additional medical care than someone who did not. In fact, when an SSI personal injury develops, a patient is 60 percent as likely to spend time in Intensive Care after surgery than someone who does not have the issue. Plus, patients with SSI can plan on an increased hospital stay of two weeks, on average, and are up to five times more likely to be readmitted to the hospital.

In addition, surgical site infections can lead to even more serious complications and in some cases, death.

Causes of Surgical Site Infections

Research studies have long-concluded that most surgical site infections can be prevented when doctors, nurses and other medical practitioners follow the appropriate standard protocol.

That protocol, unfortunately, is not always a top priority. When healthcare providers get careless and cause a serious SSI, they can be held accountable for their mistakes with a medical malpractice lawsuit , just like with other types of surgical errors .

Typical causes of surgical site infections include:
• Inappropriate surgical and post-surgical techniques
• Unsanitary surgical instruments or surgical environment
• Failure to administer antibiotics • Inadequate sterilization of surgical site
• Failure to treat or diagnose a current infection at time of surgery
• Failure of medical personnel to wear clean scrubs, use a face mask, cover their hair and correctly prepare their hands for surgery
• Surgical room ventilation issues
• Shaving hair from the surgical site versus clipping
• A surgery that goes on for too long
• Leaving a foreign object inside the incision

Signs of an Surgical Site Infection

Doctors should always provide information to patients explaining the possible symptoms of a post-surgery infection. Here are just a few to be aware of:
• Fever and redness at the surgery incision site
• Pain and/or swelling
• Sudden reopening of the surgical wound
• Drainage from the surgical site