Perioperative interventions for the prevention of surgical wound infection in adult patients undergoing left ventricular assist devices implantation: A scoping review

Background: Surgical wound infection is the most frequent type of care health associated infection. Lack of knowledge about the prevention of surgical wound infection in patients undergoing left ventricular assist device implantation could significantly undermine the potential benefits of surgical intervention.

Objectives: This study aimed to map the recommendations for adult patients undergoing left ventricular assist device implantation.

Design: This is a scoping review, being registered in the Open Science Framework under DOI https://doi.org/10.17605/OSF.IO/Q76B3 (https://osf.io/q76b3/).

Method: Left ventricular assist device coordinators and nurse specialists in dermatology and stomatherapy conducted a scoping review in Scopus, The Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature (CINAHL), limited to the period between 2015 and 2022. The results of this scoping review will be discussed and presented in separate articles. This paper will synthesize research evidence on the perioperative topic.

Results: The initial searches resulted in 771 studies. Sixty nine met the eligibility criteria and were included in the scoping review. Eight articles addressing the perioperative topic that answered the question of this article were included.

Conclusion: Although this scoping review included heterogeneous, and scarce studies with left ventricular assist device patients. As such, there are many promising future research directions for this topic.

Implications for clinical practice: Infection surveillance should be an integral part of left ventricular assist device implantation programs in health care institutions. Velvet completely buried in subcutaneous tissues reduces transmission system infection. Triple tunnel method reduces transmission system infection risk.