Objective: To compare the surgical wound infection in patients undergoing elective or emergency abdominal surgeries.

Study Design: Comparative study

Place & Duration of Study: Study was conducted at surgery department of Divisional Headquarter Teaching hospital Mirpur Azad Kashmir for eighteen months duration from June 2019 to November 2020.

Materials and Methods: 150 patients of both genders with ages 15 to 65 years who received laparotomy treatment due to intra-abdominal infection or complicated appendicitis were included in this study. Patient’s medical history, age, sex and residency were recorded after taking informed consent. All the patients were divided into two groups, Group A contained 75 patients (Elective) and Group B contains 75 patients (emergency) received laparotomy. Deep surgical wound infection was examined at the 7th day after surgery and compared between both groups.

Results: Ninety eight (65.3%) patients 49 in each group were males and 52 (34.7%) patients 26 in each group were females. In Group A and B 27 and 29 patients were ages 15 to 30 years, 33 and 31 patients had ages 36 to 45 years, 15 and 15 patients were ages between 46 to 60 years. 10 (13.3%) patients in Group A and 12 (16%) patients in group B had deep surgical infection within 1 week after surgery. Statistically there is no significant difference between the both groups (p>0.356)

Conclusion: It is concluded that the frequency of wound infection was high in emergency abdominal surgeries as compared to patients undergoing elective surgery, but the difference was not statistically significant.

Keywords: Emergency laparotomy, Deep surgical site infection, PO Drain placement