The prevalence and surveillance of surgical site infections in South Africa: A literature review

Nokaneng, Emmy Ngoakoana and Holloway, Samantha L. 2025. The prevalence and surveillance of surgical site infections in South Africa: A literature review. International Wound Journal 22 (6) , e70690. 10.1111/iwj.70690

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Abstract

Background Surgical site infection is a post-operative complication, which has a significant clinical impact on the affected individual as well as the healthcare system. They are associated with poor outcomes such as increased length of hospital stay, morbidity, mortality and readmissions. As a result, surgical site infections are used as an indicator of the quality of surgical care and for benchmarking. Aim The aim of the review is to gain insight on the current prevalence/incidence and surveillance of surgical site infection in South Africa. Methods A literature review was conducted with the search strategy limited to articles published in English with no limitation to the period. Findings Fifteen articles were deemed eligible for the review according to the inclusion criteria. Eleven articles focused on the epidemiology of surgical site infection in South Africa. The surgical site infection rate varies from 0.65- 48% with heterogeneity in the characteristics of the surveillance programmes. Conclusion The review showed variability in the SSI rates with similar variability in the incidence of surgical site infection as reported on sub-Saharan and African countries (7.93, 9.3, 19.1 ,14.5% respectively). The above information was gleaned from institutional point/ period prevalence or incidences due to a lack of an integrated national surveillance programme. Thus, there is an urgent necessity to establish an integrated national surveillance programme to facilitate monitoring as well as prevention of surgical site infection in South Africa.

Item Type:	Article
Date Type:	Publication
Status:	Published
Schools:	Schools > Medicine
Subjects:	R Medicine > RZ Other systems of medicine
Uncontrolled Keywords:	Surgical site infection Surveillance programme Prevalence/incidence • Clinical indicator Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery
Publisher:	Wiley
ISSN:	1742-4801
Date of First Compliant Deposit:	19 May 2025
Date of Acceptance:	8 May 2025
Last Modified:	04 Jun 2025 11:00
URI:	https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/178344

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