Society guideline links: Prevention of surgical site infections in adults

Introduction — 

This topic includes links to society and government-sponsored guidelines from selected countries and regions around the world. We will update these links periodically; newer versions of some guidelines may be available on each society's website. Some societies may require users to log in to access their guidelines.

The recommendations in the following guidelines may vary from those that appear in UpToDate topic reviews. Readers who are looking for UpToDate topic reviews should use the UpToDate search box to find the relevant content.

Links to related guidelines are provided separately. (See "Society guideline links: Deep sternal wound infection".)

International

●Wounds International: Best practice statement on SSI surveillance – Promoting a seamless patient journey from surgery to community (2023)

●World Health Organization (WHO): Global guidelines for the prevention of surgical site infection, 2nd edition (2018)

Canada

●Best Practice in Surgery (BPS): A clinical practice guideline on surgical site infection prevention (2017)

United States

●American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP): Red Book – Surgical site infection criteria (2024)

●American Society of Colon and Rectal Surgeons (ASCRS): Clinical practice guidelines for preventing surgical site infection (2024)

●Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America (SHEA)/Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA)/Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology (APIC)/American Hospital Association (AHA)/The Joint Commission: Practice recommendation – Strategies to prevent surgical site infections in acute-care hospitals, 2022 update (published 2023)

●American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons (AAOS): Evidence-based clinical practice guideline for prevention of surgical site infections after major extremity trauma (2022)

●American Society of Transplantation (AST): Guidelines on surgical site infections (2019)

●American Society of Breast Surgeons (ASBrS): Clinical consensus statement on preoperative antibiotics and surgical site infection in breast surgery (2017)

●American College of Surgeons (ACS) and Surgical Infection Society (SIS): Surgical site infection guidelines, 2016 update (published 2017)

●Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC): Guideline for the prevention of surgical site infection (2017)

Europe

●European Wound Management Association (EWMA): Surgical site infection – Preventing and managing surgical site infection across health care sectors (2020)

United Kingdom

●National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE): Medical technologies guidance on Leukomed Sorbact for preventing surgical site infection (2021)

●NICE: Medical technologies guidance on Plus Sutures for preventing surgical site infection (2021)

●NICE: Guideline on surgical site infections – Prevention and treatment (2019, updated 2020)

●NICE: Quality standard on surgical site infection (2013)