Results of open wound technique in the treatment of post-sequestrectomy dead space.

Background And Method: Severe chronic osteomyelitis with variable outcomes is still common among children in developing nations. There has been no consensus on the optimal method of treatment. We therefore prospectively evaluated the rates of wound healing and recurrence following open wound treatment of post-sequestrectomy dead spaces in 30 patients with haematogenous chronic osteomyelitis of the tibial shaft at the King Orthopaedic Clinic, Ekpoma, Edo State, Nigeria, between January 2001 and December 2005.

Outcome of surgical zipper technique.

In the period between March 2003 and February 2005, we carried out a randomized controlled prospective study to evaluate the outcome of the surgical zipper technique in closing 50 clean surgical skin wounds in our centers. The gender, age and wound distribution were similar for the surgical zipper study group and the conventional nylon suture control group. The outcome of scar was rated as good if the emerging scar was a thin, linear (< 2 mm wide) scar and bad if it was a broad, flat (> 2 mm wide) or a heap-up scar.