Impact of Early Post-Operative Water Exposure on Complications of Cutaneous Surgeries

Surgical Wound Infection Clinical Trial

Official title:

Impact of Early Post-Operative Water Exposure on Complications of Cutaneous Surgeries

Clinical Trial Details — Status: Completed

Administrative data

• NCT number: NCT01773694
• Other study ID #: HMC IRB 38335EP
• Status: Completed
• Phase: N/A
• Start date: March 2013
• Est. completion date: October 16, 2020

Study information

• Verified date: September 2020
• Source: Milton S. Hershey Medical Center
• Contact: n/a
• Is FDA regulated: No
• Study type: Interventional

Clinical Trial Summary

Patients are often counseled to keep a surgical wound dry for 2 to 3 days. The rationale is likely to decrease the risk of infection and bleeding. However, this has never been formally studied. Patient's routines are likely disrupted when they are asked to avoid wetting the area. The investigators will perform a controlled study to determine if avoidance of post-operative wetting is necessary.

Description:

Physicians commonly instruct their patients to keep a wound dry for 2 to 3 days following surgery. The rationale may be that sources of water like a shower, bathtub, or swimming pool may increase the risk of infection. There may also be a concern that changing a dressing in the early post-operative period will increase the risk of bleeding complications. However, patient's routines and quality of life are disrupted when they are asked to avoid bathing, exercise, and swimming.

These issues have never been formally studied. This study will test the hypothesis of whether early post-operative wetting will have any influence on infection rates, bleeding complications, or the appearance of a surgical wound. Patients presenting to the Penn State Hershey dermatology clinic for the surgical removal of cancerous or non-cancerous skin lesions will be invited to participate. There will be no change to the standard surgical treatment. The dressing will be the same for all study participants. After surgery, study subjects who consent to participate will be randomized to receive one of two sets of post-operative instructions. One group will be directed to keep their initial post-operative dressing intact and dry for 48 hours. The second group will remove the dressing at 6 hours and wet the wound for 10 minutes in whatever manner they choose (shower, bath, pool, hot tub, etc.). After the initial dressing is removed (at 48 hours or 6 hours), both groups will perform identical post-operative care, consisting of cleansing the wound with soap and water followed by the application of petrolatum ointment and a dry dressing.

All participants will follow-up 7 to 14 days after surgery or earlier if they are experiencing any problems. At this time, the site will be assessed for clinical evidence of infection and bleeding. If the former is present, a bacterial culture will be obtained to confirm a wound infection and patients will be treated with an antibiotic. Physicians performing the assessment will be blinded to the patient's status (early wetting group or not). All subjects will also complete a questionnaire inquiring how and when they wet their wounds after surgery as well as two questionnaires asking how their quality-of-life and function were affected. Participants will again follow-up at 6 months when a blinded investigator will assess the cosmetic appearance of the scars using an established scar rating tool.

The data from this study will provide valuable evidence based guidance to surgeons in drafting wound care instructions for their patients. If the hypothesis proves correct, patients may be spared the inconvenience of post-operative water avoidance, diminishing the disruption to their lives caused by skin surgery.

Recruitment information / eligibility

• Status: Completed
• Enrollment: 507
• Est. completion date: October 16, 2020
• Est. primary completion date: March 16, 2020
• Accepts healthy volunteers: No
• Gender: All
• Age group: 18 Years and older

Eligibility

Inclusion Criteria:

1. subjects are capable of giving informed consent

2. patients undergoing any surgical treatment of benign and malignant lesions by any physician in the Dermatology department consisting of:

1. standard excisional surgery or Mohs micrographic surgery with immediate reconstruction

2. reconstruction with primary linear closure or adjacent tissue transfer with one or two layers of suture

Exclusion Criteria:

1. pregnancy

2. age younger than 18 years

3. will not be returning to the dermatology clinic in 7-14 days for suture removal

4. documented or suspected infection of the site prior to surgery

5. current treatment with systemic antibiotic therapy

6. staged excisions

7. delayed or staged reconstructions

8. wounds repaired with skin or cartilage grafts

9. management with secondary intention healing

10. surgical site on or near a mucosal surface where standard dressings are not typically used (eyelid, vermilion, etc.)

11. patients receiving prophylactic antibiotics

12. patients deemed on a case-by-case basis by their surgeon to have a high risk of post-operative bleeding and requiring prolonged application of a pressure dressing

13. history of skin sensitivity or reaction to white petrolatum

Related Conditions & MeSH terms

• Surgical Wound
• Surgical Wound Infection
• Wound Infection

Intervention

Behavioral:
• Early Water Exposure
The Early Water Exposure (Intervention) group will receive written and verbal instructions to remove the dressing after 6 hours and wet the wound for at least 10 minutes. Wetting of the wound will include shower, tub bath, or pool exposure. On subsequent days, all participants, regardless of group assignment, will wash the wound daily with soap and water, reapply white petrolatum and a dry dressing.

Locations

Country	Name	City	State
United States	Department of Dermatology, Penn State Milton S. Hershey Medical Center	Hershey	Pennsylvania

Sponsors (2)

Lead Sponsor	Collaborator
Milton S. Hershey Medical Center	American Society for Dermatologic Surgery

Country where clinical trial is conducted

United States, 

References & Publications (12)

Chren MM, Lasek RJ, Flocke SA, Zyzanski SJ. Improved discriminative and evaluative capability of a refined version of Skindex, a quality-of-life instrument for patients with skin diseases. Arch Dermatol. 1997 Nov;133(11):1433-40. — View Citation

Li J, Chen J, Kirsner R. Pathophysiology of acute wound healing. Clin Dermatol. 2007 Jan-Feb;25(1):9-18. Review. — View Citation

Menke NB, Ward KR, Witten TM, Bonchev DG, Diegelmann RF. Impaired wound healing. Clin Dermatol. 2007 Jan-Feb;25(1):19-25. Review. — View Citation

Mudigonda T, Pearce DJ, Yentzer BA, Williford P, Feldman SR. The economic impact of non-melanoma skin cancer: a review. J Natl Compr Canc Netw. 2010 Aug;8(8):888-96. Review. — View Citation

Ratz, J.L. Textbook of dermatologic surgery, (Lippincott-Raven, Philadelphia, 1998).

Robinson, J.K. Surgery of the skin : procedural dermatology, (Elsevier Mosby, Philadelphia, 2005).

Schuirmann DJ. A comparison of the two one-sided tests procedure and the power approach for assessing the equivalence of average bioavailability. J Pharmacokinet Biopharm. 1987 Dec;15(6):657-80. — View Citation

Smack DP, Harrington AC, Dunn C, Howard RS, Szkutnik AJ, Krivda SJ, Caldwell JB, James WD. Infection and allergy incidence in ambulatory surgery patients using white petrolatum vs bacitracin ointment. A randomized controlled trial. JAMA. 1996 Sep 25;276(12):972-7. — View Citation

Tsao S, Yao M, Tsao H, Henry FP, Zhao Y, Kochevar JJ, Redmond RW, Kochevar IE. Light-activated tissue bonding for excisional wound closure: a split-lesion clinical trial. Br J Dermatol. 2012 Mar;166(3):555-63. doi: 10.1111/j.1365-2133.2011.10710.x. Epub 2012 Jan 19. — View Citation

van de Kar AL, Corion LU, Smeulders MJ, Draaijers LJ, van der Horst CM, van Zuijlen PP. Reliable and feasible evaluation of linear scars by the Patient and Observer Scar Assessment Scale. Plast Reconstr Surg. 2005 Aug;116(2):514-22. — View Citation

WINTER GD. Formation of the scab and the rate of epithelization of superficial wounds in the skin of the young domestic pig. Nature. 1962 Jan 20;193:293-4. — View Citation

Wolcott R, Dowd S. The role of biofilms: are we hitting the right target? Plast Reconstr Surg. 2011 Jan;127 Suppl 1:28S-35S. doi: 10.1097/PRS.0b013e3181fca244. Review. — View Citation

* Note: There are 12 references in all — Click here to view all references

Outcome

Type	Measure	Description	Time frame	Safety issue
Primary	Post-operative wound infection		Post-operative day 7 to 14
Secondary	Incidence of post-operative bleeding complications		Post-operative day 7 to 14
Secondary	Scar appearance	Using a non-invasive scoring tool, participants and a blinded physician will rate the appearance of the scar 6 months after the surgery.	6 months post-operatively (+-5 days)
Secondary	Skin Specific Quality of Life	Using a validated survey, information on the participants' quality of life will be assessed.	Post-operative days 7 to14