Healthcare-associated infections: surgical site infections - Annual Epidemiological Report for 2023

Surveillance and monitoring

7 July 2026
Publication series: Annual Epidemiological Report
Time period covered: This report is based on data for 2023 retrieved on 8 April 2026 from The European Surveillance System (TESSy) and ECDC’s decentralised data storage for antimicrobial resistance and healthcare-associated infections (ARHAI).

Surgical site infections (SSIs) are among the most common healthcare-associated infections (HAIs). They are associated with longer post-operative hospital stays, additional surgical procedures, treatment in intensive care units and higher mortality.

In 2023, 12 EU Member States and one EEA country reported 6 254 SSIs from a total of 421 397 surgical procedures for nine types of surgical procedures.
The percentage of SSIs varied from 0.4% in laminectomies to 10.2% in open colon surgery, depending on the type of surgical procedure.
The incidence density of in-hospital SSIs per 1 000 post-operative patient-days varied from 0.1 to 5.7, depending on the type of surgical procedure.
In several procedure types, the number of reported procedures reached a new high in 2023, indicating in part improved surveillance participation.
Meanwhile, for 2013–2023 long-term trends, the percentage of SSIs and the incidence density were decreasing or remained mostly stable. However, some slight increases were identified in visual inspection for the most recent surveillance years 2020-2023, especially in SSI incidence density for certain procedures.

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Healthcare-associated infections: surgical site infections - Annual Epidemiological Report for 2023

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