Introduction: Surgical Site Infection (SSI) is one of the most common postoperative complications in surgery, with high morbidity. In our terciary-center we had a significant rate of surgical site infection. Because of that we created a care bundle of measures in order to improve our outcomes.
Methods: Prospectively we implemented a care bundle with retrospective analysis, to decrease SSI. The superficial, deep and organ/space infections were evaluated and compared before and after care bundle implementation.
Result: Between January 1, 2016 and December 31, 2020, 1139 patient records relating to surgical incisions were submitted for analysis. Until November 2017, we included 427 patients, 24,1% with SSI in the post-operative period. From December 2017 on, we begun the implementation of all the measures of our care bundle, which incorporate wound protector device, mechanical bowel preparation and antibiotics. Until December 2020, we included 712 patients, with an SSI of 9,6%.
Conclusion: Surgical Site Infection (SSI) is the most frequent postoperative complication in colorectal surgery and our terciary-center had an elevated surgical site infection. With the implementation of our care bundle of measures, we significantly decreased SSI and since 2017 we’re keep going on that way.

Keywords:Surgical site infection; Colorectal surgery

Abbreviations:SSI: Surgical Site Infection; CDC: Center for Disease Control and Prevention; GCL-PPCIRA: Local Coordination Group-Prevention and Control Infections and Antimicrobial Resistance Program; HAISSI: Health-associated Infections-Surgical Site Infections; ECDC: European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control; IV: Intravenous; HSM: Hospital de Santa Maria