Erythrocyte Sedimentation Rate
Limited strength evidence does not support the use of ESR, alone, to rule in and rule out surgical site infections due to conflicting data.

Rationale
Multiple high-quality studies (Bottner et al 2007, Cipriano et al 2012, Panousis et al 2005) have demonstrated moderate to weak ability of ESR as a solitary test to diagnose or exclude surgical site infection. It is felt to be too variable with respect to time from surgery and in the presence of other confounding factors (such as inflammatory arthropathy) to be considered an accurate tool in diagnosis alone but may be considered as a tool to be used in conjunction with other tests.