Abstract
Background: Surgical site infection (SSI) represents a substantial burden of disease for patients and health services. A common scenario in developing countries is that though hospital infection control programme is in place but surveillance or feedback of SSI rates is usually not implemented. Therefore, an effective surveillance programme for SSI should be a critical component of any hospital infection control programme.
Methods: This study provided documented data on SSI in our hospital. The study was carried on 100 patients admitted for elective abdominal surgery. The overall infection rate in our study was 6%. There was predominance of gram negative bacilli.
Results: The gram positive isolates showed a high level of resistance against first, second and third generation cephalosporins. The gram negative isolates showed resistance to penicillin, ampicillin and amoxicillin clavulanate, cephalosporins and quinolones.
Conclusions: The overall SSI rate in our hospital was comparatively low as compared to other Indian hospital as well as hospitals in other developing countries, indicating that a satisfactory hospital infection control programme was in place.

Key words: Antimicrobial susceptibility in SSI, Bacteriological profile in SSI, Elective abdominal surgery, Hospital infection control, Surgical site infections