ABSTRACT
Surgical site infection (SSI) is among the most commonly reported forms of nosocomial infection and has been estimated to account for 14-16% of all nosocomial infections among hospital inpatients [1]. These infections have been documented to produce increased lengths of hospital stay (averaging 8.2 days in one study) as well as significant additional treatment costs estimated to be in the billions of dollars [2,3]. In addition, even though the full impact of the risk of SSIs for the increasing numbers of ambulatory surgeries has not been completely studied, at least one recent study indicates that the rate for SSIs for outpatient surgeries may be of similar magnitude to that reported for inpatient procedures [4].
