Incidence of wound infection for common general surgical procedures

Postoperative wound infection remains a ubiquitous problem with serious consequences, especially with regard to prolonged convalescence and in a source of physical and financial burden to the patient. Wound infection occurred in 13 of 1,346 of the patients during a single recent 12 month period with commonly performed surgical procedures at a large midwestern hospital. The bacteriologic findings of these infections was diverse.