15 September 2001 Effects of preoperative warming on the incidence of wound infection after clean surgery: a randomised controlled trial Andrew C Melling, Baqar Ali, Eileen M Scott, David J Leaper Professorial Unit of Surgery, North Tees & Hartlepool NHS Trust, University Hospital of North Tees, Stockton-on-Tees, TS19 8PE, UK (A C Melling BSc, B Ali FRCS, E M Scott PhD, Prof D J Leaper FRCS) Correspondence to: Andrew C Melling (e-mail:andymelling@pop.compuserve.com) Summary Background Wound infection after clean surgery is an expensive and often underestimated cause of patient morbidity, and the benefits of using prophylactic antibiotics have not been proven. Warming patients during colorectal surgery has been shown to reduce infection rates. We aimed to assess whether warming patients before short duration, clean surgery would have the same effect. Methods 421 patients having clean (breast, varicose vein, or hernia) surgery were randomly assigned to either a non-warmed (standard) group or one of two warmed groups (local and systemic). We applied warming for at least 30 min before surgery. Patients were followed up and masked outcome assessments made at 2 and 6 weeks. Findings Analysis was done on an intention-to-treat basis. We identified 19 wound infections in 139 non-warmed patients (14%) but only 13 in 277 who received warming (5%; p=0·001). Wound scores were also significantly lower (p=0·007) in warmed patients. There was no significant difference in the development of haematomas or seromas after surgery but the non-warmed group were prescribed significantly more postoperative antibiotics (p=0·002) Interpretation Warming patients before clean surgery seems to aid the prevention of postoperative wound infection. If applied according to the manufacturers guidelines these therapies have no known side-effects and might, with the support of further studies, provide an alternative to prophylactic antibiotics in this type of surgery. Lancet 2001; 358: 876-80 Guidelines J Free Radical Biology & Medicine 12/02 Virginia Commonwealth University Story from a caregiver Thanks to Julia Schopick & the National Brain Tumor Foundation Surgery, 9/04 FDA, 6/04 Maggot Thrpy Reduces Post-op Wound Infections LINK to site for inexpensive wound care J Wound Care, 4/04 Reasons to Drink Aloe Vera J Gerontology, 2005 Press Release, July 2007 Archives of Facial Plastic Surgery, July/August 2007 Orthomolecular News Service, December 2007 Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, October 2008 Remember we are NOT Doctors and have NO medical training. This site is like an Encylopedia - there are many pages, many links on many topics. Support our work with any size DONATION - see left side of any page - for how to donate. You can help raise awareness of CAM.