Closure of abdominal incisions with subcutaneous catheters.

Five hundred patients who underwent a variety of major abdominal operations had primary closure of their abdominal incisions. The technique of closure included the use of catheters in the subcutaneous space with suction, except when an antibiotic solution was being instilled every 8 hours of the first 9 days after operation. The rate of postoperative wound infection in these 500 patients, a group which included 140 patients who had contaminated or dirty wounds, was 0.8 percent. Infection developed in only one (0.47 percent) of the 211 patients who underwent major colon procedures. No significant side-effects of treatment were observed.