ABSTRACT
Surgical site infections are often the most problematic and fatal type of infection that can occur in hospital settings. Many SSIs are thought to be transmitted only by direct contact, either hand to patient or hand to equipment, or equipment to patient, but this view overlooks the fact that both hands and equipment may pick up contamination from elsewhere, and that may include settling from the air. Microbes, especially bacteria in the size range of nosocomial agents, are relatively large and will settle within seconds or minutes. Once settled, they may be resuspended by activity. Levels of airborne bacteria are invariably highest near the —oor and lowest near the ceiling. This may not be true for viruses, which can remain suspended indeŸnitely due to their size, but viruses are not normally SSIs.
