An Updated Guidelines on Post-Operative Wound Management

Abstract

Introduction: management and prevention of wounds after a surgical procedure, are important and debatable topics. Optimal adoption of guidelines for proper prevention and management of post-surgical wounds must be carried out by any surgeon or institute. Postoperative wound care is done by cleaning and dressing the wounds after the surgical procedure, preventing them from getting contaminated with the external surfaces or the microorganisms on the patient’s body. Surgical Site Infection (SSI) is the infection associated with healthcare in which the infection occurs in the wound after an invasive surgical procedure. A minimum of 5% of the patients who undergo surgical procedures will develop surgical site infections. This study draws the attention of the clinicians to a proper set of guidelines for post-operative care to minimize post-operative complications.
 Materials and Methods: this study is a Retrospective Cohort design. The study was considered 92 patients who had various types of surgery from during the period of 10 months. The patients who had intra-abdominal surgery are only included. The study divided 92 patients into 2 groups. In each group, 46 patients were assigned based on following NICE guidelines on postoperative wound management. Patients, for whom the NICE guidelines were followed properly at every aspect, were assigned to the first group (Group 1). Otherwise, the patients were assigned to the second group (Group 2). The study adopted a list comprising of NICE guidelines which are applicable to this study. The study assessment was done by observing the appearance of Surgical Site Infection among the patients, 3 to 7 days post-surgery.
 Results: it as found that 91.30% of the Group 1 patients showed significant improvement in terms of resolution while only 13.04% of the patients in improved significant without any surgical site infection (SSI).
 Conclusion: the study results show that the patients who were given post-operative care according to NICE guidelines had much lesser Surgical Site Infection (SSI) as compared to those who were not given post-operative care according to NICE guidelines.
 Keywords: surgical site infection, postoperative care, nice guidelines, wound management