BACKGROUND: The risk factors of surgical site infection after spinal surgery are diverse and complex. At present, there is still a great controversy on the study of the risk factors of postoperative infection of spine. OBJECTIVE: To systematically evaluate the independent risk factors of surgical site infection after spinal surgery, and to provide theoretical basis for the prevention and treatment of surgical site infection. METHODS: Between January 2004 and June 2019, the Chinese and foreign databases were retrieved. According to the inclusion and exclusion criteria, we collected case-control and cohort studies on independent risk factors for surgical site infection after surgery. After extraction of available data, independent risk factors (hypertension, diabetes, obesity, smoking, history of surgery) for the merger OR value and 95%CI were calculated by using the fixed effect model and random effect model for meta-analysis. The consistency of the results was compared. The reliability of the merge result was analyzed. RESULTS AND CONCLUSION: (1) A total of 19 articles were included, with 1 008 cases of surgical site infection, and the control group contained 7 527 cases. (2) The independent risk factors for merger OR value (95%CI) from high to low in turn were diabetes (OR=3.24, 95%CI: 2.09-5.02), obesity (OR=2.99, 95%CI: 1.77-5.05), surgical history (OR=2.12, 95%CI: 1.79-2.50), hypertension (OR=1.90, 95%CI: 1.34-2.69), and smoking (OR=1.85, 95%CI: 1.39-2.48). (3) Results indicated that diabetes, hypertension, obesity, smoking and surgical history are all independent risk factors for the occurrence of surgical site infection after spinal surgery, and each independent risk factor is positively correlated with the occurrence of surgical site infection after spinal surgery.