Abstract: OBJECTIVE To explore the effect of infection control pathway of operating room on improvement of self-protection of operating room staff and control of infection so as to provide guidance for practice of the operating room. METHODS A total of 3200 patients who received surgical procedures in the hospital from Jan 2015 to Jan 2017 were retrospectively enrolled in the study and divided into the study group and the control group according to chronological order of surgery, with 1600 cases in each group. The control group was given conventional nursing, while the study group was treated with infection control pathway. The incidence of infection, time of preoperative use of antibiotics, rate of clean air in operating room, qualified rate of environmental hygiene and patient's satisfaction were observed and compared between the two groups; the status of self-protection of the operating room staff, including mechanical injuries, biological, chemical, physical hazards, were compared before and after the infection control pathway was carried out. RESULTS The incidence rate of infection of the study group was 0.94%, lower than 2.94% of the control group; the time of preoperative use of antibiotics of the study group was (2.97±0.18)days, shorter than (5.14±0.72)days of the control group. The rate of clean air in operating room was 99.00% in the study group, higher than 94.81% in the control group; the qualified rate of environmental hygiene of the study group was 98.88%, higher than 96.13% of the control group; the patient' satisfaction of the study group was 98.94%, higher than 93.88% of the control group, and there were significant differences (P<0.05). There were 21 staffs in the operating rooms; the incidence rates of mechanical injuries, biological, chemical, physical hazards were respectively 2.13%, 4.81%, 1.00% and 2.75% after the infection control pathway was carried out, significantly lower than those before the infection control pathway was carried out (P<0.05). CONCLUSION The control of infection in the operating room is not satisfied. The infection control pathway can reduce the infection rate in the operating room, shorten the time of preoperative use of antibiotics and improve the self-protection capability of the staff, and it is worthy to be promoted in the hospital.