Southern surgical association articlePhase II Randomized Trial of Negative-Pressure Wound Therapy to Decrease Surgical Site Infection in Patients Undergoing Laparotomy for Gastrointestinal, Pancreatic, and Peritoneal Surface Malignancies

BackgroundSurgical site infections (SSIs) remain a major source of morbidity and cost after resection of intra-abdominal malignancies. Negative-pressure wound therapy (NPWT) has been reported to significantly reduce SSIs when applied to the closed laparotomy incision. This article reports the results of a randomized clinical trial examining the effect of NPWT on SSI rates in surgical oncology patients with increased risk for infectious complications.Study DesignFrom 2012 to 2016, two hundred and sixty-five patients who underwent open resection of intra-abdominal neoplasms were stratified into 3 groups: gastrointestinal (n = 57), pancreas (n = 73), or peritoneal surface (n = 135) malignancy. They were randomized to receive NPWT or standard surgical dressing (SSD) applied to the incision from postoperative days 1 through 4. Primary outcomes of combined incisional (superficial and deep) SSI rates were assessed up to 30 days after surgery.ResultsThere were no significant differences in superficial SSIs (12.8% vs 12.9%; p > 0.99) or deep SSI (3.0% vs 3.0%; p > 0.99) rates between the SSD and NPWT groups, respectively. When stratified by type of surgery, there were still no differences in combined incisional SSI rates for gastrointestinal (25% vs 24%; p > 0.99), pancreas (22% vs 22%; p > 0.99), and peritoneal surface malignancy (9% vs 9%; p > 0.99) patients. When performing univariate and multivariate logistic regression analysis of demographic and operative factors for the development of combined incisional SSI, the only independent predictors were preoperative albumin (p = 0.0031) and type of operation (p = 0.018).ConclusionsUse of NPWT did not significantly reduce incisional SSI rates in patients having open resection of gastrointestinal, pancreatic, or peritoneal surface malignancies. Based on these results, at this time NPWT cannot be recommended as a therapeutic intervention to decrease infectious complications in these patient populations.