The visibility window of point-prevalence surveys: Interpreting prolonged surgical antimicrobial prophylaxis indicators

Point-prevalence surveys (PPSs) support antimicrobial stewardship, but surgical antimicrobial prophylaxis (SAP) estimates may be shaped by visibility windows. Using PPS and prospective surgical site infection surveillance (SNICh) data, we compared crude procedure-level, visibility-weighted PPS-like, and PPS-observed estimates of prolonged SAP. The crude SNICh estimate was 12.44%, increasing to 40.86% after visibility weighting, close to the PPS-observed 39.87%, supporting visibility-sensitive interpretation of PPS SAP indicators.