In Germany, nosocomial infections and postoperative wound infections are a significant burden for the healthcare system and the patients affected. A postoperative wound infection is often accompanied by a massive deterioration in the quality of the treatment success of surgical measures in terms of patient stress, the functional results and the cost-effectiveness of a treatment for the service provider. The aim of this article is to present the current hygiene requirements for the perioperative setting in a comprehensible manner and to explain them to everyone involved in the surgical procedure.

First of all, the importance of hygienic measures is explained, as well as a brief overview of the development up to modern hygiene concepts of today. Then the current recommendations of the KRINKO (Commission for Hospital Hygiene and Infection Prevention at the Robert Koch Institute): "Prevention of postoperative wound infections, recommendation of the Commission for Hospital Hygiene and Infection Prevention (KRINKO) at the Robert Koch Institute" are presented.

Hygienic work is a basic prerequisite for work in the surgical area, because convincing treatment results with good functional results cannot be achieved in many areas (e.g. modern endoprosthetics) without sufficient hygiene. The modern requirements for hygienic work are complex and affect all areas of the hospital. The best possible degree of process quality can only be guaranteed if all pillars of modern hygiene concepts are observed.