A cross‐sectional survey of patients with open surgical wounds in Slovenia

Abstract

Most surgical wounds heal by primary intention, that is, the wound is closed with sutures, clips, or glue. However, some surgical wounds are either left open to heal from the bottom up (“healing by secondary intention”) or break open partially or fully after primary closure. There is little basic knowledge about the occurrence and natural history of surgical wounds healing by secondary intention (SWHSI); therefore, the aim of this survey was to estimate the number of people with SWHSI in Slovenia, the nature of these wounds, and to investigate how they are managed. A multiservice, cross‐sectional survey was carried out over a 2‐week period in the city of Ljubljana, Slovenia (population 288,919). Healthcare professionals across health and social care settings completed one anonymised form for each patient with a SWHSI. Forms were completed for 110 patients. The point prevalence of SWHSI was 0.38 per 1,000 of the population (95% CI: 0.33–0.44). Patients’ mean age was 50.5 years. The majority of SWHSI were planned to heal by secondary intention before surgery (76/110, 69%). Of SWHSI, 83% (92/110) were treated with wound dressings, and 6% were treated with negative pressure wound therapy. Data were missing for 11 cases. This survey is the first to provide essential information about the extent, nature, and treatment of SWHSI in Slovenia. Furthermore, it is one of the latest of a very small number of studies to have contributed to knowledge about SWHSI globally. The results from the survey can be used for planning future research, health resources management, and policy development.

Epidemiology and disease burden of complex wounds for inpatients in China: an observational study from Sichuan province

“…This study also found that females have lower rates of complex wounds in China than males, which is consistent with previous study conducted in China and Slovenia, 4,16,17 but different from the UK 1 10 -which showed that females are more likely to suffer from complex wounds. 30 The difference may be partially explained by differences in occupational and lifestyle activities with heavy labour and activities such as smoking being more common in older men than women of the same age.…”

“… 1 10 The same survey was carried out in Slovenia and found that the point prevalence of open surgical wounds was 0.38 ‰. 4 …”

“… 3 Complex wounds have been shown to adversely affect the health-related quality of life of those affected as they are often painful and can become infected. 4 5 Complex wounds can lead to amputation, 6 7 which causes physical and mental harm, and severely affect productivity. Patients with complex wounds have a higher mortality than people without.…”

“…1 10 The same survey was carried out in Slovenia and found that the point prevalence of open surgical wounds was 0.38 ‰. 4 Epidemiological research on complex wounds in China is limited. In 1998, Fu et al screened 30 000 hospitalised surgical patients in 15 Chinese hospitals for chronic dermal ulcers and found that the incidence of wounds was from 1.5% to 3.0%, with trauma and infection being the main causes.…”

Interdisciplinarna obravnava osebe z rano: Univerzitetni učbenik

“…Pregled slovenske literature pokaže skope podatke o prevalenci kompleksnih ran, in sicer sta bili opravljeni dve obsežni prevalen ni študiji (Franks et al, 2007;Pađen et al, 2019) in dve študiji, ki bi ju bilo možno klasificirati kot neke vrste »klini no presojo zdravstvene prakse« (ang. clinical audit) oz.…”