Surgical site infection constitutes most preventable hospital-associated infections and puts the burden on the health care system. They are responsible for mortality and morbidity all over the world. Using institutional data focused on postoperative outcomes within 30 days, several risk factors previously reported to be predictors of abdominal surgery, surgical site infections (SSI), were not confirmed at our institution. These results indicate that local care and case-mix variables impact results considerably and independently, making inter-institutional comparisons.