A survey of patients with surgical wounds healing by secondary intention; an assessment of prevalence, aetiology, duration and management.
I C Chetter, A V Oswald, M Fletcher and 2 others
PMID 28049612WHAT IT FOUND
In Hull and East Riding, 187 patients had surgical wounds healing by secondary intention. 109 of 187 were treated in community care, median wound duration was 28 days, and 184 of 187 received wound treatment.
Key findings
01187 patients with at least one surgical wound healing by secondary intention were analysed.
02109 of 187 patients were treated in community care, and the median wound duration was 28 days.
03184 of 187 patients received wound treatment, and 169 of 181 receiving treatment had dressings.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for RNs
Read the rest of this summary
You get three full summaries a month, free, and we do not ask for a card. Search, the TL;DRs and your library stay unlimited either way.
What it does not show
The survey covered only Hull and East Riding over two weeks, so results may not apply elsewhere. Sampling was purposive, not random, so patients may not represent all people with surgical wounds healing by secondary intention. The cross-sectional design could not measure time to healing. Providers identified patients from caseloads, so eligible patients may have been missed. The paper did not report how many providers did not respond, so conclusions may reflect only responders. Missing data were not handled formally, and some wound durations and settings were missing.
Declared interests
The research was funded by the National Institute for Health Research under Programme Grants for Applied Research (RP-PG 0609-10171). The paper states that the views expressed are those of the authors and not necessarily those of the NHS, the NIHR or the Department of Health.
The easy way to misread this
Do not treat 169 of 181 dressings as proof dressings are best. This survey recorded what patients were receiving during a two-week period and did not compare treatments or measure healing.