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Background: Surgical Site Infection is an index of health care system of any hospital. Surgical material is a risk factor for SSI that can be easily changed. One of such measures is the use of antimicrobial suture technology which involves the impregnation of synthetic, absorbable, polymeric sutures with the antiseptic, Triclosan. Triclosan-coated sutures inhibit bacterial colonization of wide-spectrum of pathogens. This study was designed to assess the efficacy of triclosan coated sutures in reducing incidence of surgical site infection in Indian population.Methods: This is a retrospective ‘real-world’ study of 150 patients who underwent surgery and wound closure with triclosan-coated suture from May 2015 to December 2015 at Hospital, Mohali. Incidence of SSI was recorded, and nature of wound was categorized. Data was subject to descriptive analysis.Results: 99.3% of wounds sutured with triclosan coated sutures did not have surgical site infection. The single case of SSI encountered was categorized as superficial-incisional. All the evaluated cases were categorized as ‘clean’ at the time of discharge.Conclusions: Triclosan-coated sutures were responsible for the reported reduction in SSI, particularly in adult patients with clean wounds. This study justifies that in addition to the mandated core measures of surgical care, adjunctive evidence-based interventions such as Triclosan-coated sutures should be considered in the comprehensive effort to decrease risk of surgical site infection and improve outcome at both patient and institutional levels.

Introduction There has been an exponential rise in number of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19)-positive infections since March 23, 2020. However, cancer management cannot take a backseat. Objective The aim of this study was to identify any difference in the complication and mortality rates for the cancer patients operated during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Materials and Methods This was a retrospective study of a prospectively maintained database of five centers situated in different parts of India. Variables such as demographics, intraoperative, and postoperative complications were compared between COVID-19 (group A—March 23, 2020–May 22, 2020) and pre-COVID time period (group B—January 1 to January 31, 2020). Results One-hundred sixty-eight cancer surgeries were performed in group B as compared with 148 patients who underwent oncosurgeries in group A. Sixty-two percent lesser cancer surgeries were performed in the COVID-19 period as compared with the specific pre-COVID-19 period. There was no significant difference in age group, gender, comorbidities, and type of cancer surgeries. Except for the duration of surgery, all other intraoperative parameters like blood loss and intraoperative parameters were similar in both the groups. Minimally invasive procedures were significantly lesser in group A. Postoperative parameters including period of intensive care unit stay, rate of infection, need for the change of antibiotics, and culture growth were similar for both the groups. While minor complication like Clavien-Dindo classification type 2 was significantly higher for group A, all other complication rates were similar in the groups. Also, postoperatively no COVID-19-related symptoms were encountered in the study group. A subset analysis was done among the study groups between those tested preoperatively for COVID-19 versus those untested showed no difference in intraoperative and postoperative parameters. No health-care worker was infected from the patient during the time period of this study. Conclusion Our study shows that there is no significant difference in the incidence of postoperative morbidity and mortality rates in surgeries performed during COVID-19 pandemic as compared with non-COVID-19 time period.