Background: To assess the effectiveness of vacuum assisted closure (VAC) therapy for healing of infected wounds. Methods: In this prospective case-control study, total of 25 patients with chronic non-healing wounds were recruited. Before the application of VAC, surgical debridement was performed to remove all the devitalized necrotic tissues as per requirement and the wound was packed with povo...

OBJECTIVE To assess the level of agreement between common definitions of wound infection that might be used as performance indicators. DESIGN Prospective observational study. SETTING London teaching hospital group receiving emergency cases as well as tertiary referrals. PARTICIPANTS 4773 surgical patients staying in hospital at least two nights. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES Numbers of wound in...

Objective To assess the level of agreement between common definitions of wound infection that might be used as performance indicators. Design Prospective observational study. Setting London teaching hospital group receiving emergency cases as well as tertiary referrals. Participants 4773 surgical patients staying in hospital at least two nights. Main outcome measures Numbers of wound infections...

BACKGROUND Surgical wounds that become infected are often debrided because clinicians believe that removal of this necrotic or infected tissue will expedite wound healing. There are numerous methods available but no consensus on which one is most effective for surgical wounds. OBJECTIVES To determine the effect of different methods of debridement on the rate of debridement and healing of surg...

BACKGROUND Surgeons usually witness only the limb-threatening stages of infected, closed pedal puncture wounds in diabetics. Given that this catastrophic outcome often represents failure of conservative management of pre-infected wounds, some suggest consideration of invasive intervention (coring or laying-open) for pre-infected wounds in hope of preventing contamination from evolving into infe...

Branhamella catarrhalis was isolated from sputum, tracheal secretions, and a nonhealing and infected thoracic surgical wound in a 59-year-old woman who had a history of a chronic, interstitial fibrosis and who had undergone an open lung biopsy procedure. The patient's upper respiratory tract was the likely source of the organism. To our knowledge, this is the first report of a wound infection c...

Surgical site infections (SSIs) are a significant source of morbidity, mortality, and cost associated with small animal surgery. The most well-established strategies to reduce the impact of SSI are preventive, focusing on bolstering host immunity while decreasing wound contamination during surgery. When SSI is identified, the use of consistent definitions and culture-based therapy help to facil...

BACKGROUND The prosthetic dura is an essential element in the protection of the cranial parenchyma and prevention of cerebrospinal fluid leakage. Although prosthetic dura are widely used in neurosurgery, they occasionally provoke infection, which can be a major concern after neurosurgical treatment. However, removal of the prosthetic dura carries a risk of brain parenchyma injury and cerebrospi...

The problem of infection has been persistent in the surgical world even after the introduction of antibiotics. Pathogens that infect surgical wounds can be part of normal flora or acquired from the hospital environment or other infected patients. Staphylococcus aureus, being the normal microbial flora of the skin is one of the commonest causes of wound infection. A total of 1088 pus samples fro...