Introduction: Surgical site infection (SSI) is second most common hospital acquired infection. The rate of SSI ranges from 2.5% to 41.9% globally. The identification of bacterial pathogens and their antibiotic susceptibility testing is required for successful treatment of SSI.

Objective: To study the bacterial pathogens in patients with SSI and their antibiotic susceptibility pattern.

Results: Out of 107 samples collected from post operative cases with symptomatic wound infection, 60(56.07%) samples showed single isolates where as 13(12.14%) samples showed multiple isolates and 34(31.77%) did not show any bacterial growth. Out of 86 isolates, 29(33.7%) isolates are Gram positive organisms and 57(66.3%) isolates are Gram Negative organisms, among Gram positive isolates Staphylococcus aureus (MSSA) (44.8%) is predominant pathogen and in Gram negative isolates Escherichia coli (42.1%) is the predominant pathogen. In the present study Gram positive organisms showed high susceptibility to vancomycin and linezolid (100%) followed by gentamicin (79.3%) and Gram negative organisms showed high susceptibility to polymyxin B (94.7%) followed by imipenem (75.4%).

Conclusion: The study gives an insight into bacterial pathogens and their antibiotic sensitivity patterns isolated from SSI and there should be surveillence of SSI which helps to reduce the rate of SSI as well appropriate use of antibiotics.

Keywords: Hospital acquired infections, Surgical site infections (SSI), Antibiotic sensitivity testing, Gram positive bacteria, Gram negative bacteria.