The Inselspital Surgical Cohort Study

Personalizing surgical care is of enormous clinical relevance, when considering the number of patients undergoing surgery in Switzerland every year. Currently, personalization is based on underlying or coexisting disease or alterations of laboratory values, but there is no accepted biological test available that may predict success or failure of surgery. Surgical site infections are the most common form of hospital-acquired infections. While the relevance of bacteria, antibiotics and intensive care support is well accepted, the impact of the individual host response remains poorly understood. The Investigators hypothesize that postoperative alterations of the metabolome allow identification of predictors of surgical complications in general, and surgical site infections in particular.