Background: Surgical site infections (SSI) develops
when there is seeding of the operative site from
a distant site of infection or by endogenous flora
and other factors include host defences, bacterial
inoculums and virulence, preoperative care and
intraoperative management. They are associated
with prolonged hospital stays and increased
costs and complications associated with antibiotic
administration.

Objective: To assess the effcacy of single dose
prophylactic antibiotic for prevention of Surgical
site infection in clean and clean contaminated
surgeries.

Materials and Methods: A prospective study
was conducted which included 1002 patients
undergoing elective surgery in an institutional
setup, over a period of nine years and patients
enrolled considering inclusion and exclusion
criteria. Ceftriaxone was used preoperatively 30
min prior to incision and its impact on postoperative
wound infection was studied.

Results: We had 1002 cases in our study with
equal number in both sexes 52.3% males and
47.7% females with mean age of 38 years, we had
predominantly clean surgeries 96.7% and 3.3%
clean contaminated surgeries done and had 0.9 %
incidence of superfcial surgical site infection.

Conclusion: A single preoperative dose of
antibiotic is effective to prevent surgical site
infection in clean and clean contaminated cases. It
will help in decreasing healthcare cost, antibiotic
related drug toxicity, prevents development of
resistance due to overuse of antibiotics. It also
paves way for the development of newer studies
studying the impact of no prophylactic antibiotic
prior to elective surgeries on surgical site infection.

Keywords: Prophylactic antiobiotics; Clean
operative procedure; Single dose antibiotic;
Surgical site infection