CDC Definitions of Nosocomial Surgical Site Infections, 1992: A Modification of CDC Definitions of Surgical Wound Infections

Abstract

In 1988, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) published definitions of nosocomial infections However, because of journalistic style and space constraints, these definitions lacked some of the detail provided to National Nosocomial Infections Surveillance (NNIS) System hospitals in the NNIS Manual (unpublished). After the NNIS System hospitals had had considerable experience with the definitions and in response to a request for review by The Surgical Wound Infection Task Force, a group composed of members of The Society for Hospital Epidemiology of America, the Association for Practitioners in Infection Control, the Surgical Infection Society, and the CDC, we slightly modified the definition of surgical wound infection and changed the name to surgical site infection (SSI).