Objective: To find out the incidence of surgical site infections(SSI) in cardiac surgery patients, the organisms responsible and the risk factors associated with such infections. Materials and methods: The study is conducted in 1000 consecutive adult patients who underwent cardiac surgeries between January 2011 and August 2015 in a cardiac surgical department attached to a teaching hospital in Central Kerala, India. Results: SSIs were diagnosed in 1.8% of the patients (18 of 1,000). Of these, 15 were superficial wound infections and three were mediastinitis and all got cured with conservative management without any mortality. Culture was positive in 13 cases and the most commonly isolated pathogen was Staphylococcus spp. Though age > 60 years and male sex predisposed to SSIs, these were not statistically significant. 13 of our 18 SSI patients were diabetics. Conclusion: The incidence of surgical site infections in this centre is comparable with other studies from India as well as abroad which range from 0.53% to 18.7% [1, 2, 3, 4].

Keywords: cardiac surgery - surgical site infections - risk factors - microbiology