28/10/05 - Surveillance of surgical site infection following orthopaedic surgery

Surveillance of surgical site infection following orthopaedic surgery has been included in the mandatory healthcare-associated infection surveillance system in England since April 2004. The surveillance is managed by the Health Protection Agency (HPA) on behalf of the Department of Health. Data is collected as part of the Surgical Site Infection Surveillance Service (SSISS), which has supported voluntary surveillance in several categories of surgical procedure since 1997. Data on 41,242 procedures has been collected by 146 Trusts in the first year of mandatory surveillance of surgical site infection (SSI) between 1st April 2004 and 31st March 2005. Only NHS Trusts that undertake relevant orthopaedic procedures and who are registered with SSISS appear in the results. The rates of SSI in orthopaedics were generally low and three-quarters of infections affected the superficial layers of the wound only.
(DH - publications)
A separate report has been published by the Centre of Infections at the Health Protection Agency