[How many nosocomial infections are avoidable?].

About 400,000-600,000 nosocomial infections occur in German hospitals every year. It is difficult to calculate the percentage of them that can be prevented. It is even more difficult to estimate the number of deaths caused by avoidable nosocomial infections. But the percentage of preventable nosocomial infections has recently been calculated from data of recent studies in Germany. The data of two independently performed large epidemiological studies (the intervention study NIDEP 2 and the prevalence study of SepNET) were used to estimate the number of preventable death cases caused by nosocomial infections. About 80 000 to 180 000 nosocomial infections are avoidable annually in Germany. The number of deaths caused by nosocomial infections can be estimated between 1500 and 4500 from results of both studies. While the available data do not allow a precise estimation of the number of nosocomial infections, their avoidance and the associated deaths. However, the data presented describe the size of the problem in Germany.