The use of routine wound swabs and Kardex review for the surveillance of surgical wound infections.

Prospective post-operative wound surveillance was carried out in two phases on 1285 patients. A total of 120 infections were documented. In phase I a review of routine swabs and Kardex was conducted in parallel with continuous surveillance. In this phase continuous surveillance detected 31/35 infections and routine swabs and Kardex methods picked up 28/35 infections. In phase 2 continuous surveillance was not carried out and routine swab and Kardex review detected 78/85 infections. Overall II infections were documented following discharge. Continuous surveillance is sensitive but laborious. The method described here would enable infection control nurses to visit patients in whom infections are more likely to occur, and still provide reliable and accurate rates of infections.