Table 1.

Included study characteristics.

Characteristics	Aiken et al	Nguhuni et al	Pathak et al
Publication year	2013	2017	2015
Geographic location	Kenya	Tanzania	India
Number of included patients	1172	374	536
Study population	All patients undergoing surgical procedure	Obstetric patients	All patients undergoing surgical procedure
Included surgical procedures	Caesarean section, laparotomy, hernia repair, orthopedic lower limb surgery, salpingectomy, cystectomy	Caesarean section only	Hernia repair, colonic and urogenital surgery
Method of telemedicine intervention	Telephone calls with predetermined questionnaire	Telephone calls with predetermined questionnaire	Telephone calls with predetermined questionnaire
Follow-up frequency	2	3	1
Follow up performed	Days 14 & 28	Days 6, 12 & 28	Day 30
Length of follow up	30 days	30 days	30 days
SSIa diagnosis criteria	CDCb criteria for diagnosis of SSI	CDC criteria for diagnosis of SSI	Local SSI criteria
SSI rate	7.90%	12.0%	6.34%

^aSSI: surgical site infection

^bCDC: centers for disease control and prevention