Surveillance of prosthetic joint infections: international overview and new insights for hospital databases.

Since the US National Nosocomial Infections Surveillance System was implemented in the 1970s, several countries have developed their own surveillance systems, all including surgical site infection (SSI) as a major target. However, the performance of such systems needs to be evaluated further in terms of data quality and cost-effectiveness. The current article presents a literature overview of the main strategies used for SSI surveillance worldwide, focusing on hip and knee arthroplasty infections, and discusses new issues for further development of surveillance databases.