[Requirements for infection control during surgery]

Infections of the surgical site following surgery may compromise the outcome of surgery and may under certain circumstances even endanger the life of the patient. Therefore, hospital epidemiology plays an important role in various surgical fields of medicine by developing guidelines and recommendations for the prevention of surgical site infections. In addition, surveillance of patients regarding the development of surgical site infections should be another important component of infection control activities in all hospitals. In order to develop appropriate guidelines and to perform surveillance in surgery, it is important to utilize uniform definitions of surgical site infections and to know the pathogenesis and risk factors of surgical site infections. Knowledge in this field has increased dramatically over the course of the last several decades and has resulted in the creation of guidelines for prevention, their implementation, and revision. The current review will summarize the state-of-the-art of the requirements for infection control. The recommendations will be grouped according to their respective timing during the course of a surgical procedure, which includes a pre- as well as a postoperative phase in addition to the intraoperative phase. Despite the significant progress that has been achieved in this field, some issues remain unresolved. Among these, the practical implementations of nasal decolonization regarding S. aureus prior to surgery and improvement of glucose control during surgery in patients with diabetes are mentioned as examples for unfinished work, which awaits further research.