Preoperative correlates of impaired wound healing after saphenous vein excision

Although major wound complications after saphenous vein excision are infrequent, we have found broadly defined impairment in leg wound healing to be relatively common. Wound healing impairment is defined in this study as inflammation, separation, cellulitis, lymphangitis, drainage, necrosis, or abscess necessitating dressing, antibiotics, or débridement before wound healing with complete epithelialization without eschar. Healing was impaired in 245 of 1047 patients (24.3%). Significant correlations were found between impaired wound healing and female sex (p less than 0.005), body mass index (obesity) (p less than 0.005), diabetes mellitus (p less than 0.005), left ventricular end-diastolic pressure greater than 15 mm Hg (p = 0.0074), arterial occlusive disease of the legs (p = 0.0124), and preoperative hematocrit value (p = 0.0491).