According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, surgical site infections (SSIs) represent the second most common cause of hospital-acquired infection and the most common type of infection in patients undergoing surgery.^1,2 In addition, SSIs are associated with significant morbidity and mortality and higher rates of readmission after hospital discharge, resulting in substantially higher expenditures.³ For these reasons, SSIs represent a major health care problem at the national level. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Healthcare Quality Promotion recently gave high priority to the National Action Plan to Prevent Healthcare-Associated Infections, which includes a 5-year national prevention target of 25% reduction in admission and readmission for SSIs.⁴