[Environmental hygiene of the surgery suites for the control of surgical wound infection: Italian legislation and international guidelines].

Aim of the study is to describe the application of surgical site infection (SSI) control procedures in general surgery operating rooms of Piedmont region hospitals. A specific data collection form was designed to record information. 54 questionnaires were compiled. Piedmont legislation related to operating rooms' equipment is obeyed in more than 90% of hospitals. Nevertheless, there are some critical aspects than could be risk factors for SSI or that are not useful in order to prevent them: use of UV radiation (11.3%), use of tacky mats at the entrance of the operating room (5.7%), special cleaning of operating rooms after contaminated or dirty operations (73.6%) and routine environmental sampling (10%) that is strongly recommended by ISPESL guideline in disagreement with international recommendations. Steam autoclave is used for surgical instruments sterilization by 100% of hospitals, but only 50% of them performs an annual validation of both autoclave performance and sterilization procedures. The study gave useful information in order to promote some structural modifications and personnel education for efficacious SSI prevention and control.