Mortality attributable to hospital-acquired infections among surgical patients.

We performed a multicenter prospective matched cohort study to evaluate the mortality attributable to hospital-acquired infections among 12,791 patients admitted to surgical departments. We were able to match 731 patients with 1 or more hospital-acquired infections (ie, case patients) with 731 patients without a hospital-acquired infection (ie, control patients) at a 1:1 ratio. Of the 731 case patients, 42 (5.7%) died; of the 731 control patients, 23 (3.1%) died--a significant difference of 2.6%.