<p>The definition of surgical site infection (SSI) by the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)[1] of North America [Table 1] is the most commonly used and comprehensive. Leaper and Fry state that an SSI is the most preventable healthcare-associated infection. According to hospital data in Canada, SSIs are the third leading cause of hospital-acquired infections. Currently, inpatient surgical procedures involve shorter hospital stays, sicker patients and more complex surgical procedures that contribute to this statistic. </p>
