Safety of a multiperforated catheter implanted in the surgical wound for the continuous infusion of local anaesthetics in post-operative analgesia

To evaluate the incidence of infection at the surgical site in patients who have a multiperforated catheter implant for continuous infusion of a local anaesthetic as a local analgesic. An observational, descriptive and prospective study, of one month duration. It included 50 patients subjected to selective laparotomy in whom a multiperforated pre-peritoneal catheter was implanted for analgesia purposes (Painfusor®. Baxter). Patients with a surgical incision of less than 15 cm and/or ASA>III, were excluded from the study. The catheter was removed from all patients at 48 hours. An infection at the surgical site was present in 6% of the patients who had the catheter implanted, which was similar to the incidence in clean-contaminated surgery (5.5%; 95% CI: 3.4-8.7%). Colonisation of the catheter was observed in two patients, causing only one infection of the surgical site. The use of an in-situ pre-peritoneal catheter for post-surgical anaesthesia does not increase the risk of surgical site infection.