TY  - JOUR
A1  - Wagner, Johanna C.
A1  - Wetz, Anja
A1  - Wiegering, Armin
A1  - Lock, Johan F.
A1  - Löb, Stefan
A1  - Germer, Christoph-Thomas
A1  - Klein, Ingo
T1  - Successful surgical closure of infected abdominal wounds following preconditioning with negative pressure wound therapy
JF  - Langenbeck's Archives of Surgery
N2  - Purpose
Traditionally, previous wound infection was considered a contraindication to secondary skin closure; however, several case reports describe successful secondary wound closure of wounds "preconditioned" with negative pressure wound therapy (NPWT). Although this has been increasingly applied in daily practice, a systematic analysis of its feasibility has not been published thus far. The aim of this study was to evaluate secondary skin closure in previously infected abdominal wounds following treatment with NPWT.
Methods
Single-center retrospective analysis of patients with infected abdominal wounds treated with NPWT followed by either secondary skin closure referenced to a group receiving open wound therapy. Endpoints were wound closure rate, wound complications (such as recurrent infection or hernia), and perioperative data (such as duration of NPWT or hospitalization parameters).
Results
One hundred ninety-eight patients during 2013-2016 received a secondary skin closure after NPWT and were analyzed and referenced to 67 patients in the same period with open wound treatment after NPWT. No significant difference in BMI, chronic immunosuppressive medication, or tobacco use was found between both groups. The mean duration of hospital stay was 30 days with a comparable duration in both patient groups (29 versus 33 days, p = 0.35). Interestingly, only 7.7% of patients after secondary skin closure developed recurrent surgical site infection and in over 80% of patients were discharged with closed wounds requiring only minimal outpatient wound care.
Conclusion
Surgical skin closure following NPWT of infected abdominal wounds is a good and safe alternative to open wound treatment. It prevents lengthy outpatient wound therapy and is expected to result in a higher quality of life for patients and reduce health care costs.
KW  - open wound treatment
KW  - surgical site infections
KW  - secondary skin closure
KW  - negative pressure wound therapy
Y1  - 2021
U6  - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-267541
SN  - 1435-2451
VL  - 406
IS  - 7
ER  -