Introduction

Surgical infections are important due to the frequency with which they occur and the serious manifestations of infection. Indeed one of the main factors contributing to the death of surgical patients following major trauma and surgery is infection.

There has been a ground movement in surgery to move to less invasive and traumatic treatments to reduce the severity of the surgical insult and therefore to improve recovery, reduce morbidity and mortality. Pivotal to this movement has been the increasing understanding of the systemic inflammatory response syndrome and infection.