[Postoperative wound infection: a preventable complication?]

Abstract

Postoperative wound sepsis carries high morbidity and additional costs. Its incidence can be reduced by appropriate measures. Continuous infection surveillance is able to reduce the overall infection rate. Besides the basic rules, as care for asepsis, atraumatic surgical technique and careful haemostasis, numerous prophylactic measures are proposed, only part of measures are proposed, only part of them relying on convincing experimental or clinical evidence. Some of these measures are discussed according to the commonly accepted classification of wounds.