Wound perfusion and oxygenation are important determinants of the development of postoperative wound infections. Supplemental fluid administration significantly increases tissue oxygenation in surrogate wounds in the subcutaneous tissue of the upper arm in perioperative surgical patients. We tested the hypothesis that supplemental fluid administration during and after elective colon resections Implications: Supplemental perioperative intravenous fluid administration did not reduce the rate of wound infection. The apparent lack of benefit may have resulted because hydration's effect on intestinal oxygenation is modest or because the statistical power of our study was limited. Nonetheless, our results suggest that supplemental hydration in the range tested does not impact wound infection rate. were randomly assigned to small (n=124, 8 mL·kg -1 ·h -1 ) or large volume (n=129, 16-18 mL·kg -1 ·h -1 ) fluid management. Our major outcomes were two distinct criteria for diagnosis of surgical wound infections: 1) purulent exudate combined with a culture positive for pathogenic bacteria and 2) Center for Disease Control criteria for diagnosis of surgical wound infections. All wound infections diagnosed using either criterion by a blinded observer in the 15 days following surgery were considered in the analysis. Wound healing was evaluated with the ASEPSIS scoring system. Of the patients given small fluid administration, 14 had surgical wound infections; 11 given large fluid therapy had infections, P=0.46. ASEPSIS wound healing scores were similar in both groups: 7±16 (small volume) vs. 8±14 (large volume), P=0.70. Our results suggest that supplemental hydration in the range tested does not impact wound infection rate.
NIH Public AccessAuthor Manuscript Anesth Analg. Author manuscript; available in PMC 2006 November 1.