The Surgical Infection Society (SIS) will celebrate its first decade of existence in 1990. This issue of the Archives carries the scientific transactions of the Ninth Annual SIS Meeting in Denver, Colo, April 13-14, 1989.
The origin of SIS dates back to 1968 when the American College of Surgeons authorized the formation of a subcommittee on the control of surgical infections. During the mid-1970s, a group of young investigators began to meet at the time of the Society of University Surgeons meeting to discuss surgical infections and subsequently decided to establish a more formal group. A preorganizational meeting was held in Atlanta, Ga, April 23, 1980. The 10 surgeons in attendance became the founding members of the Society: Drs William Altemeier, John Burke, Hiram Polk, Walter and Peter Dineen, Harold Laufman, Jonathan Rhoads, Roger Sherman, Basil A. Pruitt, Jr, and J. Wesley Alexander.1
The first formal organizational meeting, held on May