Parietal wound drainage in abdominal surgery

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Abstract
A Prospective randomized study of wound drainage in 250 surgical abdominal wounds was undertaken to determine (a) what effect wound drains had on clean surgical wounds; (b) whether wound drains reduced infection in potentially contaminated wounds; (c) whether wound drainge was an acceptable alternative to the use of topical antibiotics in frankly contaminated wounds. Ten per cent of clean wounds which had been drained became infected, compared with 2 per cent of control wounds in the same group (p <0.002). Infection was also more common in potentially and frankly contaminated wounds in the presence on a drain. Skin organisms were grown from 8 drained and 2 nondrained wounds in this group (P <0.005), suggesting contamination by the drains. Drains were, however, associated with a lowere infection rate 23 obese patients with frankly contaminated wounds.