Prophylactic Negative Pressure Wound Therapy Reduces Superficial Surgical Site Infection Risk of Emergency Surgery Patients: Results of a Multicenter Randomised Prospective Clinical Trial

Despite modern aseptic precautions, surgical site infection remains a significant problem. Although the benefits of negative pressure wound therapy in the treatment of chronic wounds are well established, high-level evidence is still lacking on the potential role of negative pressure in the prevention of surgical site infections. We conducted a multicenter, randomised, prospective trial of closed incision vacuum therapy. A total of 90 general surgery patients undergoing emergency laparotomy were enrolled and randomised, 45 cases in the treatment group and 45 cases in the control group. Our aim was to show a significant difference in the rate of surgical site infection between the two groups. In the study group, laparotomy wounds were treated with a single 5-day course of prophylactic vacuum therapy, whereas the control group underwent conventional postoperative wound management with sterile gauze dressings. Ten of the 45 patients in the study group developed a surgical site infection compared to 20 of 45 in the control group (22.2% vs. 44.4% p = 0.025). Upon further analysis, the proportion of superficial SSIs was found to be significantly lower in the ciNPWT group (40% vs. 20% p = 0.038), whereas the difference in deep SSI rates was not statistically significant (4.4% vs. 4.4% p = 1.0). In conclusion, negative pressure wound therapy is not only an effective way to heal chronic wounds, but it's prophylactic use may reduce the overall rate of surgical site infections. Trial Registration: Clinicaltrials.gov: NCT03716687.