Surgical site infection surveillance: a Scottish perspective (2003–2010)

Health Protection Scotland facilitates national surveillance of surgical site infection (SSI) in Scotland with all hospitals participating in the SSI programme. For the period January 2003 to December 2010, there were 1883 inpatient SSIs, resulting from 192,007 procedures in the selected surgical categories. The inpatient SSI incidence density rates in Scotland over the duration of the SSI surveillance programme (2003–2010) showed a reduction over the eight years of surveillance for all procedures, with a significant reduction in caesarean section, hip arthroplasty, knee arthroplasty, and open reduction of long bone fracture.