Intraoperative Peritoneal Lavage in Peritonitis: Normal Saline vs Metronidazole

Introduction: Globally, acute generalized peritonitis ranks among the top surgical emergencies. Different studies have been conducted to show the amplitude of peritonitis worldwide eliciting a huge impact on overall patient morbidity and mortality. Largely peritonitis is caused by a gastrointestinal perforation or anastomotic leak. In peritonitis, anaerobes & gram-negative organisms are mostly responsible for sepsis and morbidity due to the overactive inflammatory cascade by endotoxins which is amenable to timely intervention. Aims & Objectives: The study's aim was to evaluate whether using normal saline or metronidazole solution during intraoperative peritoneal lavage (IOPL), results in a lower rate of postoperative wound infection. Place and Duration of Study: This study was undertaken at the South Surgical Ward, Mayo Hospital Lahore for 6 months from February 2nd, 2021, to August 1st, 2021. Material & Methods: Consecutive sampling strategy followed by a randomized controlled trial were used to induct and provide intervention to 90 patients aged 15-65 years with peritonitis caused by hollow viscus perforation. The patients were subdivided into 2 groups A& B(n=45 each).Two liters of normal saline were used for peritoneal lavage in group A, while two liters of normal saline were combined with 200 mL of metronidazole solution and administered to group B. intraoperatively.Baseline physiological parameters such as age, sex, BMI , intra operative surgical parameters as duration of operation and post-operative course were recorded till discharge. On 10th POD, patients returned to OPD for further monitoring. An infection was diagnosed if the patient had post-operative symptoms such as a high temperature, increased TLC, wound discharge, redness, or pain. Data was entered and analyzed using SPSS version 23. Results: A majority (54.44%) of the patients were young adults. Mean age of 37.33 ± 10.53 years of patients in the metronidazole group was comparable to mean age 40.04 ± 11.96 years in the saline group, difference was not significant (p=0.067). Male/female ratio in Metronidazole and Saline groups were 17/25 and 10/18, respectively. Patients who received intraperitoneal lavage with normal saline were more likely to develop wound infections (17/45) (37.78%), while only 3/45) (6.67% of those who received metronidazole solution did so (p 0.0001). Conclusion: Based on the results of this experiment, using metronidazole solution for intraoperative peritoneal lavage instead of normal saline reduces the occurrence of postoperative wound infection.