Objective To explore the direct economic loss and characteristics of postoperative healthcare-associa-ted infection(HAI) in surgical patients, provide scientific basis for decision-making of HAI management department. Methods 100 patients who developed postoperative HAI in a tertiary first-class hospital from January 1, 2016 to December 31, 2018 were selected as case group, a 1:1 matched case-control study was conducted to select 100 patients who didn't develop postoperative HAI were as control group, difference in direct economic loss and hospitalization days between two groups of patients was compared by rank sum test of paired design. Results Compared with control group, hospitalization expenses (median) increased by 19 866.3 Yuan (Z=-8.338, P<0.01) and length of hospital stay (median) increased by 8.0 days (Z=-6.857, P<0.01) in case group; the top three operations with increased hospitalization expenses were renal allograft, nervous system operation and urinary system operation; the top three operations with increased hospitalization days were cholecystectomy, intervertebral disc destruction or resection and urinary system operation, differences between two groups were both significant (both P<0.05); the top three infection with increased hospitalization expenses were multi-site infection, lower respiratory tract infection and intra-abdominal infection, the top three infection with increased hospitalization days were multi-site infection, deep incision infection and superficial incision infection, differences between two groups were both significant (both P<0.05). Conclusion HAI in surgical patients after operation can lead to huge direct economic loss, HAI control department should take effective prevention and control measures to reduce the occurrence of infection, such as surgical multi-site infection, lower respiratory tract infection and surgical site infection, so as to reduce the economic burden of patients.