Abstract
Background:
Surgical site infections (SSI) are frequent post-operative complications that result in raising morbidity, length of stay, and expenses of healthcare. Skin closure technique can determine the wound healing outcome. This paper contrasted the performance of stainless-steel skin staplers and polypropylene sutures as concerns postoperative wound infection after performing a midline elective laparotomy.
Materials and Methods:
This is a randomized controlled trial, which will be held in the Department of Surgery, Hayatabad Medical Complex, Peshawar, between 1 st November 2024 and 30 th April 2025. One hundred and sixty-six patients aged between 18 and 60 years who were undergoing elective midline laparotomy were randomly assigned to two groups; Group A (polypropylene subcuticular sutures, n=58) and Group B (skin staplers, n=58). Wound infection was assessed by following the patients 30 days after surgery. The SPSS version 23 was used to analyze data. Chi-square and independent t-tests were implemented and p 0.05 was taken as significant.
Results:
Infection of the wound was found in 27.6 percent of the patients in the stapler group and 12.1 percent in the suture group (p=0.033). The stapler group showed a high level of infection (p=0.048) and patients with BMI 25 kg/m 2 (p=0.042). The mean time of skin closure using staplers (6.5 differences 1.3 minutes) was significantly less than the time of skin closure using sutures (14.2 differences 2.1 minutes; p<0.001).
Conclusion:
Polypropylene sutures were found to have low rates of postoperative wound infection when compared to skin staplers in elective midline laparotomy despite needing more time to close.