Postoperative wound dealing and superficial surgical site infection in open radical prostatectomy

The number of open radical prostatectomy (RP) surgeries has been decreasing owing to the spread of laparoscopic and robotic surgery, which has implications for postoperative wound healing. The purpose of this study was to investigate and document the current status of postoperative wound healing and superficial surgical site infection (SSI) in open RPs. One hundred and seventy-five antegrade RPs with the same or similar kinds of prophylactic antibiotic administration were divided into two groups: (i) 'no intervention' (wound covering group) and (ii) 'washing', using a washing solution from the second postoperative day to the day of skin staple removal (wound washing group). We compared these groups for the occurrence of superficial SSI. The wound covering group had three (3·03%) cases of superficial SSI, with one case caused by methicillin sensitive Staphylococcus aureus (MSSA). The wound washing group had nine (11·8%) cases of superficial SSI, with three cases caused by MSSA, two cases caused by methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) and one by Pseudomonas aeruginosa. The wound covering group showed a significantly lower ratio of superficial SSI (P = 0·0472). In conclusion, the postoperative wound status data in this study suggests that no wound intervention after RP resulted in a comparatively lower ratio of superficial SSI than in the wound washing group.