Prophylactic Negative-pressure Wound Therapy Prevents Surgical Site Infection in Abdominal Surgery: An Updated Systematic Review and Meta-analysis of Randomized Controlled Trials and Observational Studies

Prevention of surgical site infection (SSI) is a public health challenge. Our objective was to determine if prophylactic negative-pressure wound therapy (pNPWT) allows preventing SSI after laparotomy. Medline, Embase, and Web of Science were searched on 6 October 2019 for original studies reporting the incidences of SSI in patients undergoing open abdominal surgery with and without pNPWT. Risk differences (RDs) between control and pNPWT patients and risk ratios (RRs) for SSI were obtained using random-effects models. Twenty-one studies (2930 patients, 5 randomized controlled trials [RCTs], 16 observational studies) were retained for the analysis. Pooled RD between patients with and without pNPWT was -12% (95% confidence interval [CI], -17% to -8%; I2 = 57%; P