[Infection registration underestimates the frequency of surgical wound infection]

Two consecutive bedside prevalence studies of 455 surgical patients were made by the same infection control nurse in 15 surgical and gynaecological departments in eight Danish hospitals. Four point six percent had a deep and another 4.6% a superficial surgical wound infection (SWI). Two months after the second survey only one third of the infections were correctly recorded by the hospital routine surveillance of surgical wound infections (SWI). Registration systems that are simpler and more valid than the existing ones need to be developed. A follow-up was carried out with self-administered questionnaires in 2976 patients, of whom 1447 (48.6%) responded. A patient-diagnosed SWI was defined as an antibiotic treatment of a wound and/or a wound reopening by a health care professional. A total of 311 patients were treated for a SWI, 42% with antibiotics, 27% with wound reopening and 31% received both these treatments. Post-discharge surveillance cannot be recommended as a routine.