COMPARISON BETWEEN DELAYED–ABSORBABLE POLYDIOXANONE AND NON-ABSORBABLE (PROLENE) SUTURE MATERIAL IN ABDOMINAL WOUND CLOSURE

Objective: The objective of this study was to compare Polydioxanone (PDS) and Prolene suture material for abdominal fascial closure regarding morbidity in terms of post-operative wound complications. Study Design: Cohort comparative ramdomized study. Place and Duration of the study: Dept of surgery Combined Military Hospital Rawalpindi from January 2002 to December 2003. Patients and Methods: A series of 100 patients presenting in the General Surgical OPD and requiring midline laparotomy were studied. In group “A” all the midline abdominal wounds were closed with Prolene 1 and in group “B” PDS 1 was used. In both the groups the data was collected, based on post-operative wound complications including post-operative wound pain, wound infection, wound dehiscence, suture sinus formation, stitch granuloma and incisional hernia. All the post-operative wound complications were then compared between the two groups. Results: Our results show that the post-operative wound infection, wound dehiscence, suture sinus formation, stitch granuloma and chronic wound pain were significantly lower with PDS 1 as compared to Prolene 1, without any significant increase in incisional hernia formation. Conclusion: Slowly absorbable suture material (PDS) appears to be superior than non-absorbable suture material (Prolene) in midline abdominal fascial closure. Key words: Polydioxanone (PDS), prolene, wound complications, incisional hernia.