STAPLES VS. SUTURES IN ABDOMINAL CLOSURE

Surgical wound closure is critical for optimal healing, infection prevention, and cosmetic outcomes. Traditional sutures and skin staples represent two primary techniques, each with distinct advantages and limitations. Sutures offer flexibility, strength, and cost-effectiveness but require longer application time and may lead to suboptimal scarring. Staples, typically made of stainless steel, promise speed, reduced tissue reactivity, and improved wound eversion but incur higher costs and may cause greater discomfort during removal. This review synthesizes evidence from a recent comparative study to evaluate the efficacy of staples versus sutures in elective abdominal surgeries, focusing on closure time, cosmesis, A study showed that infection rates to predict the likelihood that a patient will develop a surgical wound infection from several risk factors, the authors used information collected on 58,498 patients undergoing operations in 1970 to develop a simple multivariate risk index the validity of this index as a predictor of surgical wound infection risk was verified. With the simplified index, a subgroup, consisting of half the surgical patients, can be identified in whom 90% of the surgical wound infections will develop. Use of this new index might substantially increase the efficiency of routine surgical wound infection surveillance and control (Haley et al., 1985) and cost-effectiveness.. In one study After orthopaedic surgery, there is a significantly higher risk of developing a wound infection when the wound is closed with staples rather than sutures. This risk is specifically greater in patients who undergo hip surgery. The use of staples for closing hip or knee surgery wounds after orthopaedic procedures cannot be recommended, though the evidence comes from studies with substantial methodological limitations. Though we advise orthopaedic surgeons to reconsider their use of staples for wound closure, definitive randomised trials are still needed to assess this research question(Smith et al., 2010).The type of suture material for skin closure is also reported to influence postoperative wound complications. However, other studies have failed to demonstrate significant differences between different types of suture material(chandrashekar et.al 2013)