Effects of negative‐pressure wound therapy in the prevention of surgical‐site wound infection after vascular surgery: A meta‐analysis

Abstract

This meta‐analysis systematically evaluates the impact of negative‐pressure wound therapy (NPWT) on surgical‐site wound infection after vascular surgery. A comprehensive computerized search was conducted, from database inception to November 2023, in PubMed, Embase, Google Scholar, Cochrane Library, China National Knowledge Infrastructure, and Wanfang databases for randomized controlled trials (RCTs) on the application of NPWT in vascular surgery. Two researchers independently screened the literature, extracted data, and conducted quality assessments based on inclusion and exclusion criteria. Data analysis was performed using RevMan 5.4 software. A total of 11 RCTs involving 1597 vascular surgery patients were included. The analysis revealed that the application of NPWT in vascular surgery significantly reduced the incidence of wound infections (OR = 0.43, 95% CI: 0.32–0.58, p < 0.001) and complications (OR = 0.40, 95% CI: 0.27–0.58, p < 0.001). Additionally, NPWT was found to decrease the occurrence of both superficial wound infections (OR = 0.63, 95% CI: 0.36–1.12, p = 0.12) and deep wound infections (OR = 0.47, 95% CI: 0.19–1.16, p = 0.10), although these differences were not statistically significant. This study indicates that NPWT, compared with conventional treatment methods, has significant advantages in preventing postoperative wound infections and complications in vascular surgery patients and is therefore worthy of widespread clinical adoption.