SSION
In any hospital setting, nosocomial infections
are important clinical indicators of quality of patient
care and infection control. [13] Surgical site infection
(SSI) is the second most common health care associated
infection, next only to hospital acquired urinary tract
infection [14]. The factors determining the prevalence
of SSI could be patient related, surgeon related or
related to the overall contamination level of hospital
environment like indoor air [15]. While patient and
surgeon related factors like the presence of co-morbid
conditions, pre operative preparation, surgeon’s
expertise, insertion of implants, adequacy and timing of
anti microbial prophylaxis are very important factors,
there is no undermining the fact that the microbiological quality of operation theatre air has a huge bearing on
the outcome of any surgical procedure. The
microbiological quality of air can indeed be considered
as a mirror of the hygienic condition of operating room
[2, 16]. Recording the susceptibility pattern of isolates
to commonly used antibiotics in the area helps to select
appropriate antibiotics for empirical therapy. This also
helps to design suitable hospital infection prevention
protocols in an effort to minimize the incidence of
costly SSI. Thus the current study was planned with the
objective of determining the bacterial load and
antibiotic susceptibility pattern of isolates in operating
room’s indoor air of Mahatma Gandhi Medical Hospital
(MGH)