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