Background: Surgical site infections (SSIs) are any infections occurring in a surgical wound within 30 days. SSIs are real risks associated with significant burden in terms of patient morbidity and mortality, and costs to health services around the world. SSIs are known to be the commonest form of hospital acquired infections. In a busy medical college hospital where the work load is tremendous and majority of the patients belong to the low socio-economic conditions with poor hygiene and nutritional level, the incidence of SSI in emergency procedures is high causing great burden on the hospital where cost of dressing material, hospital stay, food and investigations are provided free of cost.

Method: We studied 100 patients who underwent abdominal surgeries for elective or emergency procedures in the last one year who developed SSI in the immediate post-operative period. The 50 patients had undergone emergency surgery and 50 were elective.

Result: In elective surgeries, 3 patient developed SSI. In Emergency Surgeries, 8 patients developed SSI. Infection with E.Coli and Staph Aureus were more common. The organisms were susceptible to Ceftriaxone, Cefaperazone-Sulbactum, Cefotaxime, Piperacillin-Tazobactum and Amikacin which were easily available in the hospital.

Conclusion: Certain simple and easy to follow protocols for pre-operative care to prevent SSI which helped to reduce the rate of SSI in elective surgery patients. Simple steps can bring down the incidence and reduce the economic burden on hospitals giving low cost or free treatment.

Keyword: SSI, Antibiotic sensitivity, Economic burden, Pre-operative  protocol.