Successful Management of Infected Widely Dehisced Wound Using Progressive Tension Sutures: Case Report

Surgical wound dehiscence is a life-threatening postoperative complication mainly related to a failure of wound healing that leads to psychosocial stress in patients and their caregivers. Here, we report a successful management of widely dehisced wound using progressive tension sutures in low-resources setting.

A 35-year-old grand multipara woman underwent caesarean section for fetal distress. On postoperative day five, she developed a surgical site infection and the wound dehisced. After two failed attempts of dehisced wound closure she was referred to our hospital. The midline widely dehisced wound was dirty but all her investigative studies were within normal range, except for hypoalbuminemia. She was successfully treated with wound dressing, broad-spectrum antibiotics, and progressive approximation of wound edges using tension sutures, without the application of a Mesh.

After full wound bed granulation, a progressive approximation of wound edges using tension sutures at an interval of two to three weeks could increase the success of widely dehisced surgical wound closure without applying Mesh in resource-limited areas.