Healthcare associated infections

• 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, treatment in intensive care units and higher mortality. • In 2018-2020, 12 EU Member States and one EEA country reported 19 680 SSIs from a total of 1 255 958 surgical procedures for nine types of surgical procedures. • The percentage of SSIs varied from 0.6% in knee prosthesis surgery to 9.5% in open colon surgery, depending on the type of surgical procedure. • The incidence density of in-hospital SSIs per 1 000 post-operative patient-days varied from 0.1 to 5.0, depending on the type of surgical procedure. • Comparing the year 2020 to 2018-2019, there was a decrease in the yearly number of surgical procedures reported and countries providing data to ECDC.