Towards the reduction of surgical site infection rates in colorectal surgery

Surgical site infections (SSIs) have a significant impact on a patient's post-operative morbidity and mortality. Colorectal operations have an increased SSI rate exemplified by the operations being clean-contaminated or contaminated procedures.Recently published in this journal, Falconer and colleagues report a large longitudinal cohort prospective study of 1075 Scottish patients with analysis of 4 different SSI bundles, aimed to identify their impact on SSI rates [1]. The primary outcomes were overall and superficial SSI rates during the inpatient stay. The authors are to be congratulated on implementing a robust quality improvement methodological approach to reduce their SSI rate from 16.4% to 5.1%. The independent assessment of post-operative wounds by the infection control team should be commended, as this facilitates unbiased and accurate data collection prior to patient's hospital discharge.