Post-operative Infections: Physician’s Perspectives

A wound infection should have either a purulent discharge in, or exuding from, the wound or a painful, spreading erythema indicative of cellulitis. Bruising, haematoma formation, serous and lymph collections are complications which may predispose to the development of wound infection, and may lead to diagnostic difficulties. Infection should be considered to be present when there is fever, tenderness, oedema and an extending margin of the erythema.1 The discharge of clear fluid from a wound does not indicate an infection unless accompanied by cellulitis. The definition of wound infection should not be dependent on the results of bacteriological studies. False-negative cultures can occur and on other occasions organisms isolated from cultures may represent either secondary colonisation or merely contamination.2