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Topic · Surgery

Surgical site infection prevention

Surgical site infection prevention is a research topic within Surgery. Science Explorer counts 21k research works in it since 1950. 10.0% of them reached the world's top 10% most cited for their field and year.

This cluster of papers focuses on the prevention, management, and impact of surgical site infections (SSI) in various surgical procedures. It covers topics such as antimicrobial prophylaxis, wound therapy, risk factors for SSI, healthcare-associated infections, and the economic burden of SSI. The papers also discuss the use of perioperative antibiotics, clinical guidelines for infection prevention, and the incidence of SSI in different surgical specialties.

  • Surgical Site Infection
  • Antimicrobial Prophylaxis
  • Wound Therapy
  • Infection Prevention
  • Perioperative Antibiotics
  • Healthcare-Associated Infections
  • Risk Factors
  • Orthopedic Surgery
  • Cost Analysis
  • Clinical Guidelines
Research works
21k
fractional, since 1950
In the world top 10%
2.1k
per year above
Top-10% rate
10.0%
share of its works in the world top 10%
Growth, 2018-21 → 2022-25
+14%
the tick is no change
Largest producer
United States
38% of the 10 largest, 2022-now
Surgical site infection prevention

This ranks research output and citation impact. It says nothing about the quality of diagnosis, treatment or care.

Which countries lead Surgical site infection prevention research?

By volume, the United States and China publish the most (1.4k and 656 works in 2022-now).

By volume, 2022-now

  1. 1 United States 1.4k works
  2. 2 China 656 works
  3. 3 India 339 works
  4. 4 United Kingdom 319 works
  5. 5 Japan 249 works
  6. 6 Germany 211 works
  7. 7 Italy 160 works
  8. 8 Türkiye 140 works
  9. 9 Australia 137 works
  10. 10 France 122 works

How concentrated that is

The same countries as shares of everything the list above accounts for. A node where two countries do two thirds of the work and one spread evenly across twelve read alike as a ranking and not at all alike here.

United States: 37.6%China: 17.5%India: 9.1%United Kingdom: 8.5%6 others listed: 27.2%38%largest
United States1,407 · 37.6%China656 · 17.5%India339 · 9.1%United Kingdom319 · 8.5%6 others listed1,018 · 27.2%

Shares of the rows listed above, not of the whole node.

Which institutions lead Surgical site infection prevention research?

By volume in 2022-now, Harvard University publishes the most Surgical site infection prevention research, followed by Mayo Clinic and All India Institute of Medical Sciences.

By volume, 2022-now

  1. 1 Harvard UniversityUnited States 44 works
  2. 2 Mayo ClinicUnited States 39 works
  3. 3 All India Institute of Medical SciencesIndia 27 works
  4. 4 Sichuan UniversityChina 25 works
  5. 5 Duke UniversityUnited States 20 works
  6. 6 Cleveland ClinicUnited States 20 works
  7. 7 Johns Hopkins UniversityUnited States 20 works
  8. 8 Shanghai Jiao Tong UniversityChina 18 works
  9. 9 Peking UniversityChina 18 works
  10. 10 Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer CenterUnited States 18 works

Who are the leading researchers in Surgical site infection prevention?

The most-cited researchers publishing on Surgical site infection prevention include Douglas G. Altman, Matthias Egger and Gordon Henry Guyatt.

  1. 1 Douglas G. Altman United Kingdom 862k citations
  2. 2 Matthias Egger Switzerland 326k citations
  3. 3 Gordon Henry Guyatt Canada 315k citations
  4. 4 Jeremy Grimshaw Canada 281k citations
  5. 5 Penny F. Whiting United Kingdom 264k citations
  6. 6 Jean‐Louis Vincent Belgium 262k citations
  7. 7 Ralph B. D’Agostino United States 255k citations
  8. 8 Jasvinder A. Singh United States 247k citations
  9. 9 James Thomas United Kingdom 242k citations

Ranked by citations received across their whole record, among researchers with at least three works on this topic.

What are the most cited papers in Surgical site infection prevention?

The most cited paper in Surgical site infection prevention is "Guideline for Prevention of Surgical Site Infection, 1999" (Alicia J. Mangram, Teresa C Horan, Michele L. Pearson et al., 1999), with 4,641 citations. Next come "Multistate Point-Prevalence Survey of Health Care–Associated Infections" (4,028) and "Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Guideline for the Prevention of Surgical Site Infection, 2017" (3,599).

Most cited papers
#PaperReleasedCitations
1 Guideline for Prevention of Surgical Site Infection, 1999 Alicia J. Mangram, Teresa C Horan, Michele L. Pearson et al. · Infection Control and Hospital Epidemiology Apr 1999 4,641
2 Multistate Point-Prevalence Survey of Health Care–Associated Infections Shelley S. Magill, Jonathan R. Edwards, Wendy Bamberg et al. · New England Journal of Medicine Open access 26 Mar 2014 4,028
3 Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Guideline for the Prevention of Surgical Site Infection, 2017 Sandra I. Berríos-Torres, Craig A. Umscheid, Dale W. Bratzler et al. · JAMA Surgery Open access 3 May 2017 3,599
4 Estimating Health Care-Associated Infections and Deaths in U.S. Hospitals, 2002 R. Monina Klevens, Jonathan R. Edwards, Chesley L. Richards et al. · Public Health Reports Open access Mar 2007 2,977
5 National Nosocomial Infections Surveillance (NNIS) System Report, data summary from January 1992 through June 2003, issued August 2003 A report from the NNIS System · American Journal of Infection Control Dec 2003 2,924
All 97 most cited papers, with filters and sorting

Where is Surgical site infection prevention research done?

The largest centres of Surgical site infection prevention research in 2022-now are Beijing (China), London (United Kingdom), New York (United States) and Tokyo (Japan). Among places with at least 20 works in it, it is an unusually large share of all research in Karachi and Cleveland.

Largest cities, 2022-now

  1. 1 BeijingChina 78 works
  2. 2 LondonUnited Kingdom 74 works
  3. 3 New YorkUnited States 73 works
  4. 4 TokyoJapan 61 works
  5. 5 SeoulSouth Korea 54 works
  6. 6 PhiladelphiaUnited States 51 works
  7. 7 BostonUnited States 48 works
  8. 8 ShanghaiChina 41 works
  9. 9 ChengduChina 40 works
  10. 10 ParisFrance 39 works

Where it is the local speciality

  1. KarachiPK · 32.0 works4.7×
  2. ClevelandUS · 35.4 works4.5×
← less than its size predicts1×more →

Location quotient: how much more of its research is in Surgical site infection prevention than the world average.

See Surgical site infection prevention on the map

Where is the best place to study Surgical site infection prevention?

Among universities, judged by research, Erasmus University Rotterdam, Harvard University and Duke University score highest, combining excellence, specialisation, size, growth and international reach. Research strength is one signal when choosing where to study; it does not measure teaching.

0%20%40%mean 16.82%fractional works in this field (log) →share of work in the world top 10% →Erasmus University R…Sichuan UniversityDuke UniversityHarvard University
above the meannear itbelow it

One dot per university in the first ten of the table below, at the default weights. The upper left is the interesting corner: small places doing unusually strong work.

Excellenceshare of its work in the world top 10%, 2022-now and all time averaged
40%
Specialisationhow much of its work is in this field, counted up to 10× the world share
10%
Sizeits output in this field, on a log scale
30%
Growthoutput growth, counted from -20% to +20%
10%
Internationalshare of its work with a co-author abroad
10%
Each slider sets a weight; the share it gets of the score is beside it.
#UniversityScoreTop 10%SpecialisationWorksGrowth
1Erasmus University RotterdamNetherlands 64.329.1%3.4×8 +53.8%
2Harvard UniversityUnited States 61.08.6%2.8×44 -14.8%
3Duke UniversityUnited States 61.014.5%5.2×20 +36.8%
4Sichuan UniversityChina 56.515.6%2.2×25 +82.4%
5Fujian Medical UniversityChina 52.120.5%4.8×13 +73.8%
6Vanderbilt UniversityUnited States 50.417.7%3.6×13 +51.8%
7University of WashingtonUnited States 50.217.2%2.3×12 +21.2%
8Radboud University NijmegenNetherlands 50.221.9%3.0×9 -6.4%
9University of CopenhagenDenmark 50.013.0%2.6×12 +15.5%
10Johns Hopkins UniversityUnited States 49.010.1%2.7×20 -0.3%

Universities only. The score blends excellence (40%), size (30%), specialisation (10%), growth (10%), international reach (10%), 2022-now; growth compares 2018-21 with 2022-25 and counts up to +20%, since a jump from a small base is mostly noise.

Every institution in Surgical site infection prevention, country by country

Is Surgical site infection prevention research growing?

Output in 2022-2025 was 14% higher than in 2018-2021, peaking in 2025. The fastest-growing topics are Surgical site infection prevention.

still counting19801990200020102020
grewheldshrank

The same series as a ribbon: one cell per year, darker for more. The line above answers how much; this answers when.

Its share of all research

Growing output can still be a shrinking share: all of science grows. This is Surgical site infection prevention as a percentage of every work published that year, 0.020% in 2024.

still counting0.010%0.020%0.030%Surgical site infection prevention0.024% in 202519801990200020102020

Fractional works of Surgical site infection prevention over all fractional works that year. How the balance of science has shifted.

How much of it reaches the world top 10%

Year by year.

still counting5%10%15%Surgical site infection prevention10.0% in 2025200020102020

Of each year's works in it, the share that reached the world's 10% most cited for their field and year. A field is the world for its own topics, so there is no other line to hold it against.

Which topics inside it are moving

Growth and decline on one axis around a shared zero. Two lists side by side hide the thing that matters: whether the growth dwarfs the decline, or the other way round.

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