Introduction: The infection of surgical wounds is the most common hospital infection among surgical patients. It is an inflammatory process, which occurs after surgery. It causes tissue damage, prolongs the healing of a wound, and increases the chances of sickness and death in patients. The main duty of health care workers is to prevent the infection of surgical wounds and to take precautions, which enable safe health care for patients. Hand hygiene is the easiest and most effective way to prevent infection of the surgical wound. Under hand hygiene in the operating rooms are classified as surgical washing and disinfecting hands and the use of sterile surgical gloves. Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to present the infection of surgical wounds using professional and scientific literature. The main topic is prevention of infection, with the focus being on the importance of hand hygiene of workers in the surgical department and the dilemmas regarding the use of surgical gloves. Methods: This paper employs the descriptive method with an overview of literature. The literature in Slovene was gathered using the database COBISS.SI, while the English literature was gathered using the databases CHINAL, Medline, ERIC, PubMed. We have used articles between the years 2007 and 2017, with focus on the more recent ones. Discussion and conclusion: Infection of the surgical wound represents a quarter of all hospital acquired infections, despite the fact that are known methods of prevention. In Slovenia for now there are no standardized procedures for infection prevention, also there is no well-organized tracking of wound infections, which could produce improvements in the field of prevention of infection of the surgical wound. All the employees are responsible for safe health care, but it is the surgical nurses who play a key role in preventing infection of surgical wounds. They must possess knowledge and be able to identify patients who are at increased risk for the occurrence of infection. Operating nurses should consistently implement important measures to prevent infections and control the implementation of preventive measures of the other employees. In this way they ensure the safety of patients and employees alike.
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