A prospective study of postoperative wound infection was carried out over a two year period in Cumhuriyet University Medicine Faculty Hospital in Sivas, Turkey. Examination of wounds, with cultures of all suspicious wounds using standard bacteriological methods was performed. Of a total of 4146 surgical wounds, 188 (4·53%), became infected. High infection rates were noted after colon resection (32·1%), gastric and oesophageal operations (21·1%), cholesystectomy (17·2%), and splenectomy (10·2%). Low infection rates were noted after thyroidectomy, mastectomy, caesarean section and abdominal hysterectomy. The commonest causative organisms were coagulase-negative staphylococci 21·7%, Staphylococcus aureus 19·7%, Escherichia coli 19·7%, Enterobacter spp. 17·6%, and Pseudomonas spp. 10·7%.