Wound Closure and Wound Dressings in Adult Spinal Deformity Surgery From the AO Spine Surveillance of Post-Operative Management

Study design: An e-mail-based online survey for adult spinal deformity (ASD) surgeons.

Objective: Wound closure and dressing techniques may vary according to the discretion of the surgeon as well as geographical location. However, there are no reports on most common methods. The purpose of this study is to clarify the consensus.

Methods: An online survey was distributed via email to AO Spine members. Responses from 164 ASD surgeons were surveyed. The regions were divided into 5 regions: Europe and South Africa (ESA), North America (NA), Asia Pacific (AP), Latin America (LA), and Middle East and North Africa (MENA). Wound closure methods were evaluated by glue(G), staples(S), external non-absorbable sutures (ENS), tapes(T), and only subcuticular absorbable suture (SAS). Wound Dressings consisted of dry dressing (D), plastic occlusive dressing (PO), G, Dermabond Prineo (DP).

Results: The number of respondents were 57 in ESA, 33 in NA, 36 in AP, 22 in LA, and 16 in MENA. S (36.4%) was the most used wound closure method. This was followed by ENS (26.2%), SAS (14.4%), G (11.8%), and T (11.3%). S use was highest in ESA (44.3%), NA (28.6%), AP (31.7%), and MENA (58.8%). D was used by 50% of surgeons postoperatively. AP were most likely to use PO (36%). 21% of NA used DP, while between 0%-9% of surgeons used it in the rest of the world.

Conclusion: Wound closure and dressings methods differ in the region. There are no current guidelines with these choices. Future studies should seek to standardize these choices.