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| Abstract |
| Title: | SURGICAL SITE INFECTION. IS SURGICAL WOUND DRESSING REALLY NECESSARY |
| Author: | S. Lunca ; S. Romedea ; C. Morosanu |
| Abstract: | Surgical site infection continues to be a major source of morbidity following operative procedures. It is considered that the dressing protects the wound against bacterial contamination, foreign material, trauma, absorbs exudates and provides compression, so wound dressing of the primarily sutured surgical wound with a sterile dressing till the stitches are removed represents the current practice among surgeons. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the risk of infection for surgical wounds when the wound dressing was removed or not after 48 hours. Three hundred forty-eight patients were prospectively studied, 165 receiving dressing till the stitches were removed (group I) and 183 patients having their wounds left exposed after 48 hours after wound suture (group II). There were 23 thoracic wounds, 302 abdominal wounds and 23 lower limb wounds. All wounds were considerate clean or clean-contaminated and were stitched per primam. The clinical features were comparable between the two groups. Fourteen wounds (4%) were infected-six in group I (3.6%) and eight in group II (4.3%), which was statistically not significant (p=0.940). Adverse skin reactions were present in 11 patients in group I and none in group II (p=0.001). The degree of satisfaction with these two methods was high, 93.3% in group I and 91.8% in group II. Wound dressing seems to be unnecessary after 48 hours for surgical wounds and the rate of surgical site infection is not influenced by that. Leaving exposed surgical wounds may reduce costs for hospital, time for personnel and stress for patients. |
| Journal: | jurnalul de chirurgie (journal of surgery) |
| Issn: | 15849341 |
| EIssn: | |
| Year: | 2005 |
| Volume: | 1 |
| Issue: | 4 |
| pages/rec.No: | 401-406 |
| Key words | WOUND DRESSING ; SURGICAL WOUND ; SURGICAL SITE INFECTION |
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