Efficacy of subcutaneous penrose drains for surgical site infections in colorectal surgery.
AIM
To investigate whether a subcutaneous penrose drain would decrease the superficial surgical site infection (s-SSI) rate in elective colorectal surgery.


METHODS
This is a comparative study of the historical control type. Intervention consisted of the use of penrose drain in elective open colorectal surgical wounds. The outcome was an incidence of s-SSI. The patients were risk stratified according to the depth of subcutaneous tissue.


RESULTS
There were 131 patients (40 patients with high s-SSI risk) in the prior period (from July 2008 to June 2009, when no penrose drains were inserted) and 151 patients (75 patients with high s-SSI risk) in the latter period (from June 2010 to November 2011, when penrose drains were inserted). The overall s-SSI rate was 6.1% and 5.3% during the two periods (P = 0.770), and the s-SSI rate in the high s-SSI risk group was 15.0% and 8.0% (P = 0.242).


CONCLUSION
Although penrose drain was not observed to significantly reduce s-SSI, there tended to be a reduced risk of s-SSI in the high s-SSI risk group.
['Imada|Shinya|S|', 'Noura|Shingo|S|', 'Ohue|Masayuki|M|', 'Shingai|Tatsushi|T|', 'Sueda|Toshinori|T|', 'Kishi|Kentaro|K|', 'Yamada|Terumasa|T|', 'Ohigashi|Hiroaki|H|', 'Yano|Masahiko|M|', 'Ishikawa|Osamu|O|']
Subcutaneous penrose drains Surgical site infections Colorectal surgery Subcutaneous tissue Open surgery