Operative Management of Abdominal Wound Dehiscence: Outcomes and Factors Influencing Time to Healing in Patients Undergoing Surgical Debridement With Primary Closure.

Introduction: Plastic surgeons are often consulted by other surgical teams for management of wound dehiscence following abdominopelvic surgery.

Objective: The purpose of this study is to determine whether operative debridement and primary closure of abdominopelvic wounds are safe and expeditious for patients.

Materials And Methods: A retrospective analysis was conducted on a database of patients who underwent operative debridement and closure at a single institution between January 2011 and December 2015 for dehisced abdominal or pelvic wounds acquired from prior obstetric, gynecologic, transplant, plastic, or general surgery procedures.

Results: Of the 163 patient records identified, 43 patients met inclusion criteria. The median time from final debridement and primary surgical closure to complete wound healing was 27 days. Time to healing differed significantly by index procedure type (P = .004), with obstetric procedures requiring the shortest median time (12.0 days) and general surgery procedures requiring the longest (39.5 days). Wound healing took 3.6 times longer for patients with diabetes (P = .046) and 11.4 times longer for patients who experienced delayed superficial wound healing or redehiscence (P = .003). Nevertheless, with the exception of 4 patients who died of other causes, all wounds (39/39; 100%) achieved complete wound closure.

Conclusions: Operative debridement and closure of abdominopelvic wound dehiscence through a multidisciplinary team approach with plastic surgery results in expeditious wound healing with minimal complications, and it may be safer and more cost effective than healing by secondary intention.