“…In comparison to conventional saline-soaked gauze treatment, Bogota bags, towel clips or running skin closure, use of vacuum-assisted closure (VAC) for the open abdomen has become more important over the last years [5,6,7]. However, there are hardly any prospective studies [8] and the available data from case reports, case series and retrospective studies are inconsistent in terms of treatment and outcome, so a generally applicable therapeutic algorithm in open abdomen and secondary peritonitis is currently lacking [3,9,10,11,12]. …”