Dressings for Wound Infection Prophylaxis in Colorectal Surgery: A Review

In patients who require colorectal surgery, the rate of surgical site infection (SSI) is amongst the highest of any surgical specialty. Guided by the enhanced recovery after surgery (ERAS) guidelines for colorectal surgery, there is a large focus on preoperative and intraoperative measures to reduce the risk of bacterial transmission and surgical site inoculation There are many novel and developing dressing types being explored for colorectal surgery. To date, no consensus guidelines for surgical dressings that optimize healing outcomes and reduce infection from postoperative incisions have been established. The purpose of this review is to discuss various dressings used for surgical site wound infection prophylaxis for patients who have colorectal surgery.

The database, PubMed, was used for this literature review. Keywords included: colorectal surgery or abdominal surgery or clean-contaminated surgery + surgical site infection prophylaxis or negative-pressure wound therapy or bandages or biological dressings or occlusive dressings + surgical wound infection.

Five prophylactic dressings were selected for discussion. This article will review current use and research surrounding the utilization of negative pressure wound therapy devices, silver-containing dressings, mupirocin dressings, gentamicin-c sponge, and vitamin- e and silicon sponges.

Alternative dressings discussed in this article show significant promise in reducing SSI compared to conventional dressing. Additional studies to assess cost-benefit analysis and integration into general practice are needed to determine practical application.