The main objective of hygiene in surgery is to avoid, detect, and control hospital infections. This primarily involves protecting the patient from infection, although the protection of health care personnel is also an important consideration. Available means of infection control should be applied in a balanced regime tailored to the specific setting. Every member of the health care team must make it his or her personal responsibility to ensure that infection control measures are intelligently and rigorously applied in every specific antiseptic regime in the vicinity of the patient. Adherence of health care personnel to principles of hygiene is facilitated by appropriate building design, instruments, and procedures codified in the form of hygiene plans. Coordinated working procedures and use of utilities verified at regular intervals reduce the risk of contaminating the patient and the plant and equipment. Aside from the ethical dimension of their origin in the hospital or physician's office, nosocomial infections that prolong the disorder and are accompanied by a reduced long-term survival rate and increased risk of mortality have legal consequences and significantly increase the cost of inpatient and outpatient treatment.