Title

Delayed primary closure versus subcutaneous suction drain with primary closure following contaminated laparotomy wound

Authors

Arkaprovo Roy¹, Prodipta Mondal^2,* & Rajarshi Kumar³

Affiliation

¹Department of Surgery, North Bengal Medical College and Hospital, Siliguri, West Bengal, India; ²Department of General Surgery, Medical College & Hospital, Kolkata, West Bengal, India; ³Department of Pediatric Surgery, North Bengal Medical College and Hospital, Siliguri, West Bengal, India; *Corresponding author

Email

Arkaprovo Roy - E-mail: thesisandpublication22@gmail.com

Prodipta Mondal - E-mail: mondalprodipta95@gmail.com

Rajarshi Kumar - E-mail: rajarshikumar9@gmail.com

Article Type

Research Article

Date

Received April 1, 2026; Revised April 30, 2026; Accepted April 30, 2026, Published April 30, 2026

Abstract

Surgical site infections (SSIs) remain a major cause of morbidity and prolonged hospitalization following emergency contaminated laparotomies and the optimal method of skin closure in such wounds is still debated. Therefore, it is of interest to evaluate delayed primary closure (DPC) versus primary closure with subcutaneous suction drain (PC-D) in 120 adults undergoing emergency contaminated laparotomies at a tertiary care centre between January 2023 and June 2025. SSIs occurred in 13.3% of patients in the DPC group and 23.3% in the PC-D group, a difference that did not reach statistical significance, while hospital stay was significantly longer in the DPC group. Readmission rates and early SSI rates were comparable between groups and diabetes, obesity and hypoalbuminemia were identified as independent predictors of SSI. Although DPC showed a trend toward lower SSI rates, it was associated with longer hospitalization, suggesting that wound closure strategies in contaminated laparotomies should be individualized, particularly in high-risk patients. In high-risk patients (e.g., diabetics), DPC may be superior. Thus, we recommend for tailored approaches in contaminated wounds, with larger trials needed for definitive guidelines.

Keywords

Delayed primary closure (DPC), subcutaneous suction drain, contaminated laparotomy, surgical site infections (SSIs), emergency abdominal surgery

Citation

 Roy et al. Bioinformation 22(4): 2640-2645 (2026)

Edited by

Neelam Goyal & Shruti Dabi

ISSN

0973-2063

Publisher

Biomedical Informatics

License

This is an Open Access article which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly credited. This is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License.