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Quality & Practice Resources / Quality Programs & Guidelines / AAOS Toolkits / Prevention of Surgical Site Infection

Intraoperative Risk Factors

Optimize your patients' preoperative risk factors to reduce postoperative complications and improve outcomes.

Prevention of Surgical Site Infection (SSIs)

Most surgical site infections (SSIs) happen at the time of surgery, with our patient’s skin being the most common cause, as well as airborne organisms.

Pre- and perioperative antibiotics along with MRSA screening and proper skin preparation of surgical site are proven to reduce the risks of superficial and deep wound infections.

Surgeon Tools/Recommendations:

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and Musculoskeletal Infection Society (MSIS) current recommendations for prevention of SSI incorporate the following:

  • Risk mitigation by host optimization
  • Appropriate selection of perioperative antibiotics
  • Preoperative skin preparation
  • Operative environment
  • Wound management
  • MSIS recently held the international consensus meeting and have provided recommendations for SSI prevention, diagnosis, and treatment.

Overview of relevant recommendations can be found: 2017 CDC Guidelines for Prevention of Surgical Site Infection