Surgical Timing and Percutaneous Drainage
In the absence of reliable evidence, it is the opinion of the work group that the definitive strategy to successfully treat surgical site infections is thorough debridement.

Rationale

Risks/Harms
Barring the inherent risks of any surgery, there are no known harms associated with implementation of this recommendation.

Future Research
Although percutaneous drainage is an established first-line therapeutic consideration for a variety of infected fluid collections, there is a paucity of data supporting its use for fluid collections following orthopaedic surgical procedures. Future research may explore the value of percutaneous drainage of infected fluid collections in the setting of orthopaedic surgical site infection.