The magnitude and pattern of surgical wound infection in a teaching hospital in Gondar, northwest Ethiopia, was studied prospectively over a one year period. Out of 129 abdominal surgical wounds from 129 patients, fifty (38.7%) yielded pathogenic organisms on culture. The wound infection rate was 21% on clinical grounds alone. Wound infection was significantly associated with class of wound; with the highest rate being 61.4% for contaminated or dirty wound. There was no difference in infection rate between emergency and elective operations. Staphylococcus aureus and Escherichia coli were the leading aetiologic agents with rates of 28.8% and 27.1% of pathogenic isolates respectively. Surgical wound infection accounted for delay in the discharge of 14.7% of patients. This study has shown that the surgical wound infection rate in this teaching and tertiary level care hospital is high and control measures should be re-evaluated.