Relationship of Adhesive Drapes on Groin Surgical Site Infection Prevention in Vascular Surgery

Iodine impregnated adhesive drapes have been shown to reduce incidence of surgical site infection (SSI) in cardiothoracic surgery. A Cochrane review of its use in multiple specialties found significantly more SSIs in the adhesive group versus control. No studies have evaluated their use in vascular surgery and infrainguinal SSIs which this study sought to evaluate.

This was a retrospective study evaluating patients with any infrainguinal vascular surgical procedure from 2013 to 2023. We evaluated demographics, intraoperative variables including use of adhesive drapes and the occurrence of SSI up to 90 d postoperatively. Patients were excluded if they presented with already infected site.

A total of 1292 patients with average age of 62.1 ± 8.8 and majority were male. Eighty percent had adhesive drapes used and 18.1% had an SSI with 79.6% being superficial and 20.4% deep. Patients were more likely to have SSI if they had higher body mass index (BMI), were female, or had diabetes. A multivariable logistic regression model examined association of adhesive drapes on SSI. There was no difference in the odds of an SSI for those with adhesive drapes compared to those without (odds ratio = 0.86; 95% confidence interval: 0.57-1.30). On secondary analysis, there was a significant interaction between adhesive drape use and BMI (P = 0.007) with a higher odd of SSI found in patients with higher BMI.

This study showed no significant difference in SSI rates with Ioban use but showed that BMI may impact its preventative benefit. Future multicenter prospective randomized trials will be needed to better elucidate its true impact on SSI prevention.