Postoperative wound infection in a pediatric surgical service.

Seventy-two out of 1,325 consecutive pediatric patients (5.43%) developed an operative wound infection in a general pediatric surgery unit. The wound infection rate was observed to be highest in neonates (13.75%) as compared with the children over 5 years of age (2.93%). The increased susceptibility of newborns to wound infection was found to be statistically significant. Patients operated for gastrointestinal problems and solid abdominal neoplasms had the highest wound infection rate.