Risk prediction scores are useful for the surgeon not so much to implement targeted preventive strategies, since the standards for SSI prevention should be applied to any surgical interventions, but to get reliable information to share with the patient, thus supporting appropriate clinical choices and achieving the formulation of a more conscious informed consent. Over the years several studies explored the association between SSI and risk factors related to patient, surgical intervention and hospital setting. Many of them had limitations, such as poor sample size, short follow-up, inconsistent definitions of infection, that impaired the reliability of results. Following the publication of more recent studies, the possibility to conduct meta-analyses on a wider number of data generated more reliable information confirming the earlier results. The major studies conducted in the
last five years, with relevant details, are listed in Table I. Among them, the metanalyses by Zhu et al10 and Kunutsor et al12 allowed to overcome the limitations of previous research. Table II shows the risk factors for SSI identified in orthopaedic surgery, specifying whether the association to SSI is confirmed by recent literature or not.