A Pervasive Problem: Surgical Wound Class Miscoding in Pediatric Laparoscopic Appendectomy

Surgical wound classification (SWC) is one factor contributing to the likelihood of surgical site infection (SSIs). This results in SWC being an important prognostic factor for SSI, post-operative morbidity for patients, and hospital quality assessment and finance. This analysis aimed to investigate the prevalence of SWC miscoding in pediatric laparoscopic appendectomies in a national database.