BACKGROUND:–Surgical Site infections (SSIs) are one of the most commonly encountered complications after surgery. They cause pain and inconvenience to patients, result in prolonged hospital stay and may be potentially fatal. Surgical site infections and its management are costly to both patients and the health facilities. Though surgical site infection still causes considerable morbidity and high costs to the health care systems and is becoming increasingly important in medico–legal aspects.

MATERIAL AND METHODS;–Total of 150 patients of abdominal surgery from different surgical units were selected for the purpose of study from June 2015 to May 2017 in Department of general surgery, RIMS, Ranchi.

RESULTS:–The overall SSI rate is 16%. The incidence of infection is higher in elderly, in obese as well as is malnourished patients. Infection rate is also higher in anaemic patients.Compared to emergency operations, SSI rate is lower in elective operations.SSI rate is higher in surgeries of colorectal portion of GIT. Rate of SSI is directly proportional to the duration of the surgery.Compared to multifilament suture, use of monofilament suture causes less number of infections.Postoperative culture from discharge of infected wounds shows predominant growth of staphylococci and E.coli.Gram positive organism are mostly sensitive to cloxacillin ,ampicillin and amoxicillin  while Gram negative organism are sensitive to gentamycin ,ciprofloxacin,amikacin. Established cases of SSI can be treated by proper debridement/ wound excision, dressing and judicious use of easily available antibiotics like ciprofloxacin, ampicillin, ceftriaxone, cefotaxime, cefepime, erythromycin, ceftazidine, piperacillin–Tazobactum, cloxacillin and gentamycin. Prophylactic antibiotics should be used according to the established guidelines to reduce the rate of SSI.

CONCLUSION:–Improvement in perioperative antibiotic spectra, dosing, and timing, in addition to focus on sterile technique is associated with a persistent decline in wound infection. Identification of risk factor for SSI to encourage the development of recommendations for prevention of SSI in order to achieve the setting goal to reduce the SSI.