To make investigation about risk of wound infection following cardiac surgery, we analyzed cases of primary aorto-coronary bypass surgery and/or primary valvular surgery. Cases required respirator for longer than 2 days, and those with drainage tube for longer than 5 days were excluded from this study, because these cases had antimicrobial agent postoperatively as therapeutic use rather than prophylactic use. Those received preoperative antimicrobial agent for infectious endocarditis and so on were also excluded for the same reason. 523 cases were entered this study. These cases received cefazolin (CEZ) postoperatively as prophylaxis. Sternal wound and leg/groin wound were separately analyzed. Risk factors (age, sex, diabetes mellitus, unstable angina, use of intraaortic balloon, internal thoracic artery harvest, re-exploration, previous myocardial infarction, NYHA classification, emergent operation, operation time, extracorporeal circulation time, blood product use, preoperative blood hemoglobin concentration, preoperative serum albumin, preoperative creatinine clearance (Ccr), duration of drainage tube insertion, body surface area, daily dose of CEZ, duration of prophylaxis) were examined using univariate (Chi square test was used for contingency table analysis, unpaired t test was used to compare averages) and multiple regression analysis. For sternal wound infection, only Ccr showed significant (P = 0.027) correlation. For leg/groin wound infection, 2 factors (smaller daily dose of CEZ: P = 0.009, more severe NYHA class: P = 0.03) showed significant correlation. To investigate appropriate duration of CEZ prophylaxis, cases were divided into 2 groups, those had CEZ within 48 hours postoperatively (group S) and those had CEZ for longer than 48 hours (group L).(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)