Table 1 Inclusion and exclusion criteria

Population

A study conducted in a Sub-Saharan country in patients with major surgery, i.e., surgery that involves tissue manipulation and typically requires anesthesia [22].

A studies conducted outside Sub-Saharan countries, and patients with other surgeries like optometry, ENT, Maxillofacial, implant, and any other patients without surgery.

Intervention

Any non-pharmacological intervention that improves SSI.

Pharmacological interventional studies comparing SSI outcomes.

Comparator

Usual care or no intervention.

Studies without comparator.

Outcome

surgical site infection as defined by the CDC and National Healthcare Safety Network [2]

Studies that do not report SSI rates.

Study designs

RCT, cohort studies, pre-post cross-sectional studies.

Case reports, editorials, qualitative studies, and studies without clear methodology.

Publication time frame

2011 to 2023.

Before 2011 and after 2023.

Publication type

Published and unpublished studies

Conference abstracts, systematic reviews, guidelines, protocol.

Language

Articles published in the English language.

Articles published in languages other than English.

Study participants

Human participants.

Non-human participants.

Databases searched

AJOL, Hinari, Cochrane Library, and Google Scholar databases, and repositories of Addis Ababa University and Jimma University.

Studies not indexed in the specified databases.