Beschreibung:
<jats:title>Abstract</jats:title>
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<jats:title>Introduction</jats:title>
<jats:p>In some settings, it is not appropriate to close wounds primarily, such as when patients are felt to be at high risk for wound infection. FFT is a useful method of wound closure in these patients following open AWR.</jats:p>
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<jats:title>Methods</jats:title>
<jats:p>A consecutive series of patients were closed with FFT following AWR from 2019–2022. The FFT includes cutting a vacuum-assisted closure (VAC) sponge into 1×1×8cm segments that are partially placed through an otherwise closed wound. A skin VAC is placed over the wound and external portion of the FFs. Patient characteristics, operative details, and postoperative outcomes were collected. Standard descriptive statistics were reported.</jats:p>
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<jats:title>Results</jats:title>
<jats:p>Wound closure was performed with FFT in 15 patients. Patients were 63.8±13.1 years old, mean BMI was 31.1±6.5 kg/m2, and there was history of tobacco use in 40.0% of patients, diabetes in 46.7%, and prior failed hernia repair in 11(73.3%). Almost all had CDC wound class of 3 or 4(13, 86.7%) wounds, and hernia defect size was 144[8, 310]cm2. Biologic mesh was placed in 9(60.0%), and no mesh was used in 6(40.0%). Wound complication risk based on the CeDAR risk score was 59.5±15.1%. There were 2(13.3%) 30-day readmissions, including 1(6.7%) for a wound infection that was reopened at the bedside. There were no other wound complications.</jats:p>
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<jats:title>Conclusions</jats:title>
<jats:p>FFT is an alternative method of wound closure for significantly at-risk wounds in patients undergoing AWR. The present study describes FFT use in high-risk, complex patients with only 1 of 15 patients having a postoperative wound complication.</jats:p>
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