On 8 and 9 December 2011, ECDC organised an expert meeting to review the draft guidelines with a panel of experts and potential users from public health authorities from across the EU. This report contains the main suggestions and recommendations of the meeting to improve the guidelines.
Each year in the European Union, approximately 4 million patients acquire an infection in hospital and approximately 37 000 of them die as a direct result.
Surgical site infections are among the most common healthcare-associated infections, associated with longer postoperative hospital stay, additional surgical procedures or stay in an intensive care unit, and often higher mortality.