Absorbable or Non Absorbable Sutures in Hand Surgery

Department of Hand surgery Södersjukhuset

Status: Completed

Conditions: Wound Complication Hand Surgery

Treatments: Procedure: Skin closure

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT04812275

2020-06004

Details and patient eligibility

About

After all surgical procedures, the skin must be closed with some form of stitch, in healthcare called suture. According to the tradition of hand surgery, sutures that must be removed by caregivers, ie non-resorbable thread, have been used extensively, and the frequency of complications in the form of wound rupture and infection is low. For many procedures, however, it can be an advantage to avoid removing the stitches, as it is both painful for the patient and time-consuming and resource-consuming for both the patient and the healthcare system. You can then use a thread that the body itself breaks down and absorbs, ie resorbable suture. In the project, we will compare resorbable and non-resorbable suture with the primary outcome of superficial infection in the surgical area sometime day 1-20 after surgery. Secondary outcomes are the occurrence of wound rupture, pain VAS (Visual Analog Scale) when changing 2 weeks postoperatively, patient satisfaction VAS at 2 weeks and time spent in minutes for changing at 2 weeks postoperatively. The project will include all consecutive patients> 18 years of age who are operated on at the hand surgery clinic Södersjukhuset for elective or emergency surgery that do not meet the exclusion criteria. The project will include 270 patients.

Enrollment: 270 patients

Sex: All

Ages: 18 to 99 years old

Volunteers: No Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• all consecutive patients> 18 years of age who are operated on at the hand surgery clinic Södersjukhuset for elective or emergency surgery that do not meet any of the exclusion criteria.

Exclusion criteria

• -The researcher has an age <18 years.
• Patients with known healing problems in the past, for example patients with burns or during cortisone treatment.
• Patients undergoing surgery where skin grafting occurs.
• Patients with acute injuries that include a traumatic wound-ie what is usually referred to as "open injuries" -where the risk of infection is higher from the beginning.

Trial design

Primary purpose: Treatment

Allocation: Randomized

Interventional model: Parallel Assignment

Masking: None (Open label)

---

270 participants in 2 patient groups

Non absorbable suture

Active Comparator group

Description:

Wound closure with non absorbale suture. Dimension and brand at the discretion of the surgeon.

Treatment:

Procedure: Skin closure

Absorbable suture

Experimental group

Description:

Wound closure with absorbale suture. Dimension and brand at the discretion of the surgeon.

Treatment:

Procedure: Skin closure