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Kelly K. Hunt, MD

Arch Surg. 2008;143(1):61.

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text and any section headings.

One of the guiding principles when performing surgical procedures is to keep surgical infections to a minimum. It is accepted that the operating team must scrub their hands, don sterile gloves, prepare the surgical site, and use sterile instruments for the procedure. Despite these precautions, patients still experience SSIs. Mastectomy infection rates have been reported by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to be 2%, but references cited by Olsen and colleagues report rates from 2.8% to 25%. One reason for this variance is that many of the studies referenced by Olsen et al are more than a decade old and may not be relevant in our current practice environment. Patients undergoing breast cancer surgery today are most often treated on an outpatient basis, with drains in place for only a few days. The authors assessed the economic cost attributable to these infections by studying . . . [Full Text of this Article]

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