[Intra-abdominal infections: definitions and classification]

Intraabdominal infections (IAIs) represent a wide variety of pathological conditions that involve lesions of all the intra-abdominal organs. They include both inflammation of single organs and any sort of peritonitis (primary, secondary, tertiary), where the severity of the disease often depends from the extension of the inflammation ((local or diffuse peritonitis). They include also the intra-peritoneal, retroperitoneal and parenchymal abscesses. The aim of current review is that of analyse the current definitions and classifications of intraabdominal infections.