Although surgery has gotten safer over the last few decades, surgical site infections (SSI) are still higher than those in the medical community would like. In fact, surgical infections have become so problematic that many organizations like the American Academy of Orthopedic Surgeons and the Infectious Diseases Society of America have issued their own guidelines for preventing and treating surgical site and hospital acquired infections, and now the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention wants to get involved.
The CDC is expected to issue updated guidelines on the prevention and treatment of SSIs and HAIs in their newest publication of health guidelines. The last guidelines were published in 1999, and they are widely viewed as the standard for quality health care in the medical community. The new guidelines are expected to include evidence-based recommendations based on expert insight from a fewer sub-organizations, like the American Academy of Orthopedic Surgeons and the Musculoskeletal Infection Society. The guidelines on SSIs will be broken down into two sections:
Core – The core section will focus on recommendations applicable across a broad range of surgical procedures.
Specific – The other section will focus on reducing SSIs in specific high-volume, high-burden surgical procedures.
One of the main reasons the CDC wants to place specific emphasis on preventing SSIs and HAIs is because of the immense financial burden infections cause on both the healthcare provider and the patient. Healthcare experts believe basing the guidelines on evidence and previous medical studies will help reduce the number of infections and lessen that financial burden.
Dr. Silverman comments
I know how hard the AAOS has worked to curb infections in the orthopedic community, and I’m glad to see that the CDC is joining the movement. Clear guidelines rooted in hard evidence will move us closer to eliminating or at least significantly reducing surgical site infections.
The guidelines will be the first step, followed by organization and surgical team adherence. In sports, they often say you are only as strong as your weakest link, and a similar logic can be applied to surgery. If four out of five team members are extremely careful about preventing an infection, but one member gets careless, that can spell disaster. Everyone needs to get on board, or the ship will sink.
I look forward to the new CDC guidelines on SSI prevention.