M: Costs of surgical site infections that appear after hospital discharge. Emerg Infect Dis 2006, 12:831-4. Pre-publication history The pre-publication history for this paper can be accessed here: http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-2334/8/34/prepub Publish

Data were collected from surgical patients in the hos-pital and on 4 occasions postdischarge. The incidence of postdischarge surgical site infection was 8.46%. Strong evi-dence showed that these infections caused minor addition-al costs, which contradicts existing literature. We discuss why previous studies might have overstated costs. Most cases of healthcare-acquired surgical site infec-tions (SSI) appear after discharge from hospital (1); rates of postdischarge SSI between 2 % and 14 % have been reported (2). Little is known of the costs of postdischarge SSI, but 2 studies suggest that they are large (3–5) with health services and patients incurring costs and subsequent production losses. The combination of high frequency and high cost suggests that programs that reduce the risks of postdischarge SSI should be adopted, but decision makers should assess the cost-effectiveness of additional preven