Surgical wound classification is typically based on the level of contamination. The categories include:
- Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) surgical wound classification
- uninfected operative wound with no inflammation
- no entry into the respiratory, alimentary, genital, or urinary tract
- primarily closed, and drained with closed drainage (if necessary)
- includes operative incisional wounds following blunt trauma if above criteria met
- class II - clean-contaminated
- entry into respiratory, alimentary, genital, or urinary tract under controlled conditions without unusual contamination
- includes operations involving biliary tract, appendix, vagina, and oropharynx if no evidence of infection or major break in technique
- fresh, open, accidental wounds
- operations with major breaks in sterile technique or gross spillage from gastrointestinal tracts
- incisions with acute, nonpurulent
- inflammation.
- class IV - dirty/infected
- old traumatic wounds with retained devitalized tissue
- wounds involving existing clinical infection or perforated viscera
- suggests infective organisms present in operative field before operation.
- Reference - CDC Hospital Infection Control Practices Advisory Committee guideline on prevention of surgical infection (Infect Control Hosp Epidemiol 1999 Apr;20(4):250), commentary can be found in Infect Control Hosp Epidemiol 1999 Apr;20(4):231
