BACKGROUND Surgical site infections (SSIs) is the third most frequently reported nosocomial infection, accounting for 12% to 16% of all nosocomial infections among hospitalised patients, as reported by the National Nosocomial Infections Surveillance (NNIS) system. The Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and NNIS have developed criteria for defining SSIs, which have become national standards and are widely used by surveillance and surgical personnel. These criteria define SSIs as

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... ections related to the operative procedure that occur at or near the surgical incision (incisional or organ/space) within 30 days of an operative procedure or within one year if an implant is left in place". The estimates of the incidence of SSI are dependent upon voluntary self-reporting by surgeons, which is unreliable because most wound infections occur when the patient is discharged, and these infections may be treated in the community without hospital notification. Therefore, estimates of the prevalence of SSIs are almost underestimates, although the best data is available. Hence, present study was conducted so to estimate the prevalence of SSIs in tertiary care hospital in central Maharashtra. MATERIALS AND METHODS The study was carried out over a period of 2 years (2011)(2012)(2013) in the