Hand infections are common, with more than one thousand cases per annum recorded at the Singapore General Hospital (SGH). Hand infections could leave patients with significant functional loss due to fibrosis and stiffness consequent upon tissue injury and necrosis. Studies have shown that tissue damage can be attributed to the combined action of bacteria and their virulence factors, as well as pro-inflammatory mechanisms orchestrated by innate immune cells recruited to the site of infection. Currently, at SGH, the standard of care procedure for hand infections is to administer antibiotics and conduct continuous catheter irrigation of anatomical spaces and abscess cavities established by minimal surgical insertion. Irrigation is typically done for 5 days but the assessment of the systemic inflammatory markers and bacterial culture results are typically only available after 48 hours. Hence, in the first 48 hours, there is currently no standard protocol in place to monitor the patient’s response to treatment. Thus, there is a need to develop a standard protocol to assess the inflammatory state in the wound environment in the first 48 hours for a prompt and more effective course of treatment that could be tailored to the disease course of each patient. In our study, we have recruited 10 patients – 6 patients presented with flexor tenosynovitis and 4 patients presented with subcutaneous abscess. Wound exudate samples were collected at 6-hour intervals in the first 48 hours after commencement of irrigation and on final treatment day, coupled with plasma samples collected at 24-hour intervals over the standard 5-day irrigation procedure or until discontinuity of irrigation. Proteomic analysis of inflammatory cytokines in paired wound exudate and plasma samples was conducted using the multiplex Olink Target 48 Cytokine panel, which can quantify 45 different cytokines, chemokines and growth factors. We found that the cytokine profile for wound exudates appeared to be more dynamic and reflective of treatment responses as compared to paired systemic (plasma) cytokine profiles. Specifically, CCL-7, CXCL-8, IL-1b, IL-6 and OLR1 are more highly expressed and dynamic in the wound exudate than in the plasma. A STRING analysis of these identified protein biomarkers revealed direct protein-protein interactions in networks for myeloid leukocyte migration and inflammation responses. Future work will include correlating the cytokine data with other clinical parameters such as bacteriology outcomes, type of treatment interventions and the clinical progression of disease.