“…Overall wound infection rates are 7-40 % following abdominal wall hernia repair [6][7][8][9][10][11][12], and the rate of postoperative surgical site events increases with the level of pre-operative wound contamination [13] (possibly due to persistent sub-clinical infection): 1.5-3 % in clean wounds, 3-4 % in clean-contaminated wounds, 8 % in contaminated wounds, and 40 % in dirty wounds [12]. Further, in the presence of pre-operative contamination, all postoperative complications are increased (including superficial, deep, and intra-abdominal infection; wound disruption; lower respiratory tract infection; sepsis; septic shock; and requirements for mechanical ventilation), with an approximate overall 3.6-fold and 5.1-fold increased risk of complications in clean-contaminated and contaminated cases, respectively [14].…”