Introduction:

Surgical site infection (SSI) is the most common cause of infection in surgical patients. Post-surgical wound care treatment seems to have a great impact on this outcome.

Objective:

To evaluate the decrease of superficial or deep SSI in patients with an abdominal surgical wound managing wound care with silver hydrofiber or gauze. Likewise, to evaluate the satisfaction and presence of pain during care of the wound, and to identify adverse events and changes during the hospital stay.

Methods:

Open-label randomized clinical trial carried out in patients older than 18 years with an abdominal surgical emergency at Hospital San Vicente Fundación and IPS Universitaria, Medellín, Colombia, and wound classified as dirty between December 2016 and January 2018. Follow-up of the data of the consultations to the emergency service and external consultations, evaluate readmissions, SSI and mortality associated.

Results:

78 eligible patients, 69 in the final analysis, 34 had wound care treatment with gauze and 35 with hydrofiber dressing. We did not find statistically significant differences for the development of SSI between the wound care treatment with gauze and with hydrofiber, neither in terms of the presence of pain or in the hospital length of stay.

Conclusion:

The use of iconic silver hydrofiber in the healing of the dirty abdominal surgical wounds may have benefits, however in this study no difference was found when compared with gauze.

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