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A wound forms when biological tissues like skin, mucous membranes, and organs are damaged. Different injuries can cause wounds; properly cleaning and dressing the wounds is essential to prevent infections and additional harm. The surgical wound classification (SWC) system was initially developed in 1964 by the National Academy of Sciences and the National Research Council. The SWC system was created to represent the bacterial load in a surgical field. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) later refined this system by establishing 4 different classes of wound statuses outlined below. Each class has a postoperative risk of a surgical site infection (SSI) with scores of 1% to 5%, 3% to 11%, 10% to 17%, and more than 27%, respectively.
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