The efficacy of negative pressure wound therapy after hepatopancreatobiliary surgery: A systematic review and meta-analysis.

Objective: To evaluate the comparative influence of NPT and standard surgical dressing administration on incidence risk for surgical site infections, complications, and hospital re-admission after hepatopancreatobiliary surgery.

Methods: Five databases were systematically searched according to PRISMA guidelines. These databases included Web of Science, MEDLINE, CENTRAL, EMBASE, and Scopus for eligible studies published prior to March 2021. With eligible studies, we conducted a random-effects meta-analysis to evaluate comparative outcomes such as superficial surgical infection, deep surgical infection, seroma incidence, hematoma incidence, and hospital re-admission in patients receiving NPT or standard surgical dressings after hepatopancreatobiliary surgery.

Results: The search strategy yielded 963 studies, with six studies meeting inclusion criteria. Odds of superficial surgical site infection (OR: 1.58), deep surgical site infection (1.43), seroma complication (1.64), hematoma complication (0.40) were insignificantly different between patients receiving NPT and standard surgical dressing. The odds of hospital re-admission rate (2.37), however, were elevated in patients receiving standard surgical dressing relative to those receiving NPT.

Conclusion: This meta-analysis shows that NPT usage slightly reduces risk of hospital readmission as compared to standard surgical dressing. We did not observe any significant effect of NPT on superficial, deep surgical infections, seroma, and haematoma outcomes following hepatopancreatobiliary surgery. These findings may aid clinicians in stratifying risk and selecting treatment strategy in patients undergoing hepatopancreatobiliary surgery.