ABSTRACT
Background Surgical infection, particularly surgical site infection (SSI), has always been a major complication of surgery and trauma and has been documented for 4000-5000 years. The Egyptians had some concepts about infection as they were able to prevent putrefaction, testified by mummification skills. Their medical papyruses also describe the use of salves and antiseptics to prevent SSIs. This ‘prophylaxis’ had also been known earlier by the Assyrians, although less well documented. It was described again independently by the Greeks. The Hippocratic teachings described the use of anti-microbials, such as wine and vinegar, which were widely used to irrigate open, infected wounds before delayed primary or secondary wound closure. A belief common to all these civilisations, and indeed even later to the Romans, was that, whenever pus localised in an infected wound, it needed to be drained.
