assessment of surgical site infection risk factors at imam reza hospital, mashhad, iran between 2006 and 2011

background :the present study was conducted to establish the patterns and risk factors of surgical site infections in our institution between 2006 and 2011.   methods: this was a retrospective cross-sectional study. the surgical site infection (ssi) was identified based on the presence of icd-10-cm diagnostic code in hospital discharge records. by using a standardized data collection form predictor variables including patient characteristics, preoperative, intra-operative and postoperative data were obtained.   results: ninety five patients fulfilled the inclusion criteria. the patients were admitted for various procedures including both elective (62.1%) and emergency (37.9%) operations. colectomy (13.7%) was the leading procedure followed by umbilical herniation (12.6) and appendix perforation (12.6%). the mean age was 47.13 years with standard deviation of 19.60 years. twenty percent were addicted to opium. midline incision above and below the umbilicus (40%) had the highest prevalence of infection. most patients (46.3%) had clean-contaminated wounds and 30.5% had contaminated one. the quantitative variables which were also measured include duration of surgery, pre-operative and post-operative hospital stay with the mean of 2.9±1.45 hours, 1.02±1.42 and 7.75±6.75 days respectively.the most antibiotics prescribed post-operatively were the combination of ceftriaxone and metronidazole (51.6%).   conclusion: the contaminated and clean-contaminated wounds are associated with higher rate of ssis. also, there was a converse relation between length of surgical incision and rate of ssis. in overall, we found type of surgery as the main risk factor in developing the ssis.