BACKROUND: Ideally the patient should have the operation within 24 hours of admission to hospital before the skin has a chance to become significantly colonized by the 'hospital staphylococci'. METHODOLOGY: The study was conducted in the department of microbiology, Medical College Calicut for a period of one year from July 2007 to June 2008. The total number of elective and emergency surgeries done during the one year period in the above three units was 1902 which included 1074 elective (Major)

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... and 828 emergency cases. One hundred and two cases of clinically suspected postoperative wound infection (Fifty nine elective and fourty three emergency) from the above cases was studied in detail. The study included twenty seven 'clean', thirty two 'cleancontaminated', thirteen 'contaminated' and thirty 'dirty' cases. Records of these cases were analyzed for preoperative antibiotic prophylaxis. RESULTS: High infection rate was noted with a prolonged preoperative hospital stay of more than 2 weeks. Six out of ten patients who had more than 14 days of preoperative hospital stayed had wound infection (60%).