Negative Pressure Does Not Cut C-Section Infection Risk in Obese

WEDNESDAY, Sept. 23, 2020 (HealthDay News) — Compared with standard wound care, prophylactic negative pressure wound therapy does not lower the risk for surgical-site infection in obese women following cesarean delivery, according to a study published in the Sept. 22/29 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association.

Methodius G. Tuuli, M.D., from the Indiana University School of Medicine in Indianapolis, and colleagues evaluated whether prophylactic negative pressure wound therapy, initiated immediately after cesarean delivery, lowers the risk for surgical-site infections versus standard wound dressing in 1,608 obese women (mean age, 30.4 years; 806 randomly assigned to negative pressure and 802 to standard wound care).

The researchers found that superficial or deep surgical-site infection was diagnosed in 29 participants in the negative pressure group and 27 in the standard dressing group. Twenty-five of 30 prespecified secondary end points showed no significant differences between the groups, including other wound complications and a composite of surgical-site infections and other wound complications. However, adverse skin reactions were significantly more common in the negative pressure group (7.0 versus 0.6 percent). The study was terminated early when a planned interim analysis showed increased adverse events in the negative pressure group and futility for the primary outcome.

“These findings do not support routine use of prophylactic negative pressure wound therapy in obese women after cesarean delivery,” the authors write.

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