Healthcare-associated infections: surgical site infections Annual Epidemiological Report for 2021–2022

European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control. Healthcare-associated infections: surgical site infections. In: ECDC. Annual epidemiological report for 2021–2022. Stockholm: ECDC; 2025.

Surveillance and monitoring
  • Publication series: Annual Epidemiological Report
  • Time period covered: This report is based on data for 2021–2022 retrieved on 21 August 2024
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, treatmentin intensive care units and higher mortality.

Executive summary

• In 2021–2022, 11 EU Member States and one EEA country reported 10 193 SSIs from a total of 662 309 surgical procedures for nine types of surgical procedures.
• The percentage of SSIs varied from 0.6% in laminectomies to 9.6% in open colon surgery, dependingon the type of surgical procedure.
• The incidence density of in-hospital SSIs per 1 000 post-operative patient-days varied from 0.1 to 5.3,depending on the type of surgical procedure.
• Comparing 2022 to 2021, two additional countries reported data to ECDC. France continued theirreporting after a pause, and Belgium reported SSI surveillance data for the first time. Overall, there wasan increase in the number of reported surgical procedures, especially for hip and knee prosthesis andlaminectomy procedures.

Publication file

Healthcare-associated infections: surgical site infections Annual Epidemiological Report for 2021–2022

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