A Randomized Controlled Trial To Compare Efficacy Of Vicryl Plus Versus Vicryl In Reducing Abdominal Surgical Site Infection” – A One Year Study

Abstract

Background and objectives ABSTRACT Recently a new antimicrobial suture Polyglactin 910 coated with tricosan ( Vicryl Plus) has been introduced. It is a broad spectrum antiseptic that has been widely used in humans for over 30 years. This study was aimed to evaluate the efficacy of new antibacterial suture ( Vicryl Plus) compared with a traditional suture ( Vicryl ) in reducing abdominal surgical site infection. Methodology The present one year randomized controlled trial was conducted in Department of Surgery, KLES Dr. Prabhakar Kore Hospital and Medical Research Centre, Belgaum between January 2011 to December 2011. A total of 100 patients undergoing abdominal surgeries were included in the study. These patients were randomized into two groups based on computer generated blocked random numbers that is group A ( Vicryl plus ) and group B ( Vicryl ) . Results In this series of 100 patients, 67 were males and 33 were female. Most of the patients ( 32% ) were aged between 46 to 50 years in each group and in group A the same proportion of patients had age between 31 to 45 years. The mean age in Group A was 47.34 ± 15.00 and in group B mean age was 49.08 ± 16.71. Among more than half ( 52% vs 54% ) of patients the duration of surgery was between 61 to 120 minutes in both the groups. 70% of patients had contaminated wound compared to 80% in group B. The demographic characteristics and surgical parameters such as type of wound, surgical time, were comparable in III both the groups ( p>0.05) . In patients with group A, significantly lower incidence of abdominal surgical site infection was observed when compared to group B in all the wound assessments that is day three, five, seven and fifteen ( p<0.05) . The mean length of hospital stay in group A was 14.00 ± 4.94 days compared to 15.26 ± 4.60 days ( p>0.05) . Conclusion and interpretation Overall, the study showed that, the use of new antibacterial suture ( Vicryl Plus) showed better efficacy in reducing abdominal surgical site infections when compared to traditional suture ( Vicryl ) .