Surgical sepsis at a district general hospital.

A retrospective survey of 15,199 surgical wounds occurring over a 5-year period was carried out at a District General Hospital. Of 9495 'clean' operations, 4.5% became infected in contrast with 15.8% of 5704 'clean-contaminated' operations, an overall wound infection rate of 8.8%. There was a downward trend in the proportion of severe wound infections in 'clean-contaminated' operations which may be related to the increasing expenditure on antibiotics.