Published online Apr 27, 2013. doi: 10.4240/wjgs.v5.i4.110
Revised: January 14, 2013
Accepted: March 15, 2013
Published online: April 27, 2013
AIM: To investigate whether a subcutaneous penrose drain would decrease the superficial surgical site infection (s-SSI) rate in elective colorectal surgery.
METHODS: This is a comparative study of the historical control type. Intervention consisted of the use of penrose drain in elective open colorectal surgical wounds. The outcome was an incidence of s-SSI. The patients were risk stratified according to the depth of subcutaneous tissue.
RESULTS: There were 131 patients (40 patients with high s-SSI risk) in the prior period (from July 2008 to June 2009, when no penrose drains were inserted) and 151 patients (75 patients with high s-SSI risk) in the latter period (from June 2010 to November 2011, when penrose drains were inserted). The overall s-SSI rate was 6.1% and 5.3% during the two periods (P = 0.770), and the s-SSI rate in the high s-SSI risk group was 15.0% and 8.0% (P = 0.242).
CONCLUSION: Although penrose drain was not observed to significantly reduce s-SSI, there tended to be a reduced risk of s-SSI in the high s-SSI risk group.
Core tip: In this article, the authors investigated whether a subcutaneous penrose drain would decrease the superficial surgical site infection rate in elective colorectal surgery. Although penrose drain were not observed to significantly reduce superficial surgical site infection, there tended to be a reduced risk of superficial surgical site infection in the high superficial surgical site infection risk group(depth of subcutaneous tissue was over 20 mm).