Collection

Surgical site infection (SSI): guidance, data and analysis

UKHSA helps hospitals record incidents of surgical site infection (SSI), to help improve surgical practice and prevent further infections.

A surgical site is the incision or cut in the skin made by a surgeon to carry out a surgical procedure, and the tissue handled or manipulated during the procedure.

A surgical site infection occurs when micro-organisms get into the part of the body that has been operated on and multiply in the tissues.

UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) helps hospitals record incidents of surgical site infection (SSI), to help improve surgical practice and prevent further infections.

Guidance

Data collection

Epidemiology

Annual reports on SSI from 2011 and earlier are available from the health protection website archive.

Diagnosis

Privacy

Updates to this page

Published 14 February 2014
Last updated 24 August 2021 + show all updates
  1. Added link to Surgical site infection surveillance privacy notice.

  2. First published.