Sternal wound closure in patients undergoing open-heart surgery: a prospective randomized study comparing intracutaneous and zipper techniques.
OBJECTIVE
A prospective, randomized study was undertaken to compare a non-invasive surgical zipper to intracutaneous suture closure in open-heart surgery with respect to postoperative wound infection rate and cosmetic results.


METHODS
A total number of 300 patients were included in the study, of which 150 had their skin wound closed with zipper and 150 with intracutaneous suture. The end-points were superficial and deep sternal wound infections within 6 weeks postoperatively.


RESULTS
The incidence of total infection after 6 weeks was equal in the two groups (6.7 vs. 6.7%) (P=0.94). The superficial infection rate was 5.3% in the zipper group vs. 6.0% in the intracutaneous, and the deep infection rate was 1.4% in the zipper group and 0.7% in the intracutaneous. There was no statistically significant difference between the groups. Only the cosmetic result differed. On a visual scale from 1 (poorest) to 10 (best), an average score of 8.2 was obtained in the intracutaneous group versus 8.9 in the zipper group (P<0.01).


CONCLUSIONS
The wound infection rate was equal for the intracutaneous group compared with the zipper group; however, the cosmetic result was judged better by the patients in the zipper group.
Department of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery, Rikshospitalet, N-0027 Oslo, Norway. ivar.risnes@rikshospitalet.no
Ivar
I
Risnes
Michel
M
Abdelnoor
Runar
R
Lundblad
Svein Tore
ST
Baksaas
Jan L
JL
Svennevig
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D006348:Cardiac Surgical Procedures; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D015994:Incidence; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011183:Postoperative Complications / Q000453:epidemiology; D011446:Prospective Studies; D012307:Risk Factors; D018709:Statistics, Nonparametric; D013249:Sternum / Q000601:surgery; D013530:Surgical Wound Infection / Q000453:epidemiology*; D013536:Suture Techniques; D016896:Treatment Outcome; D014945:Wound Healing / Q000502:physiology