An interventional study of Small stitches and Mass closure in Wound Infection, Incisional Hernia and Wound Dehiscence, sponsored by Sundsvall Hospital. Completed at 1 site in Sweden. Open to participants aged 18 Years and older. Per ClinicalTrials.gov, last updated 2007-07-30.
Sponsored by Sundsvall Hospital · Not applicable, Interventional, and Prevention
The purpose of this study is to determine whether a technique using very small stitches when closing a midline incision can reduce the risk for wound complications such as incisional hernia, infection or dehiscence.
Most abdominal surgical operations are made through a midline incision and 10% of the patients may get a wound infection. Infection is a risk factor for incisional hernia, which 12 months after the operation can be seen in 10-20% of the patients. Wound dehiscence is seen in approximately 1% of the patients. Surgery because of incisional hernias are common and in Sweden approximately 2000 patients per year needs an operation creating big costs. We know that a midline incision should be closed using a continuous technique, with a suture length to wound length ratio over 4. An earlier interventional study at the Surgical Department in Sundsvall showed that using that technique reduced the risk for hernia with 50%. Subsequent experimental studies indicates that the suture length to wound length ratio should be obtained by small stitches, placed close to each other only incorporating the aponeurosis, and not by large stitches incorporating the complete abdominal wall (mass closure). The hypothesis that midline incisions should be closed with small stitches only incorporating the aponeurosis has to be tested in a clinical trial.
6,687 studies on the registry are indexed under Infections; 807 are open to participants now.
This study's enrollment of 737 is above the median of 120 across 4,200 interventional studies indexed under Infections.
Browse Infections studies →Sundsvall Hospital is the lead sponsor of 22 studies on the registry; none are open to participants now.
Counted across the registry records on this site, refreshed daily.
Exclusion Criteria:
Mass closure
Procedure: Mass closure
Small stitches
Procedure: Small stitches
Frequency of wound infection
Time frame: Within the first 30 days after surgery
Frequency of incisional hernia
Time frame: One year after surgery
Frequency of wound dehiscence
Time frame: Within the first 10 days after surgery
Effect of different suture techniques on wound complications related to patient characteristics such as age, BMI, sex etc. and operative characteristics such as emergency surgery, type of surgery, degree of contamination, surgeon,etc..
Time frame: Within 1 year.
This study is completed, as verified in Jul 2007. You cannot join it, but the record below documents what was studied.
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Sundsvall Hospital