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Cellulitis and Soft Tissue Infections > Prevention Author: Dennis L. Stevens, PhD, MD; Lawrence J. Eron, MD, FACP
Editorial changes - 2009-11-03
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Rationale:

  • Surgical site infections are the most common nosocomial infection, accounting for 38% of all nosocomial infections.
  • Surgical site infections develop in 2% to 5% of all surgical procedures and are costly.
  • Good surgical technique reduces the frequency of surgical site infection.
  • Good hand hygiene decreases the frequency of surgical site infection.

Evidence:

  • The Hospital Infection Control Practices Committee published a guideline for the prevention of surgical site infection (22).
  • A Cochrane review failed to show any advantage of chlorhexidine pre-operative showering over any other products (23).
  • The Healthcare Infection Control Practices Advisory Committee and the HICPAC/SHEA/APIC/IDSA Hand Hygiene Task Force published a guideline for hand hygiene in health-care settings (1).
  • A review discusses antibiotic prophylaxis preoperatively in patients with clean wounds, contaminated or dirty wounds, open fractures, and gunshot wounds (12).

Comments:

  • None.
FAQs
Dennis L. Stevens, PhD, MD has no financial relationships with pharmaceutical companies, biomedical device manufacturers, or health-care related organizations. Lawrence J. Eron, MD, FACP has no financial relationships with pharmaceutical companies, biomedical device manufacturers, or health-care related organizations.
Steven E. Weinberger, MD, FACP, Acting Editor, PIER, has stock holdings in Glaxosmithkline and Abbott.

The information included herein should never be used as a substitute for clinical judgment and does not represent an official position of ACP. Because all PIER modules are updated regularly, printed web pages or PDFs may rapidly become obsolete. Therefore, PIER users should compare the date of the last update on the website with any printout to ensure that the information being referred to is the most current available.
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