ABSTRACT
Mr Editor Infection at the operating site (ISO) is the most common postoperative surgical complication in general surgery. This is more frequent in cases of emergency interventions, compromises the patient's prognosis, causes high health costs, and signicantly increases the risk of reintervention. Negative pressure therapy (NPT) is an innovative strategy that was proposed about two decades ago, and has been gradually replicated around the world. This means that there are still many gaps in the evidence when it is used in many diseases and under different contexts. Nevertheless, it allows obtaining conclusive results in the time of healing, reduction of complications (mainly dehiscence and ISO), decrease in hospital stay, among other factors. In Latin America, there is very little evidence on the use of this strategy, and it is null regarding its use in emergency cases without being able to determine its impact on our environment. Recently, Lakhani et al 3 conducted a meta-analysis of 7 studies with a total of 1199 patients, where they evaluated the ISO rate in patients undergoing emergency laparotomy in whom NPT was used (n=566) vs. control group (standard care, n=633). The NPT group had a lower infection rate (13.6% vs. 25.1%), with a 57-percentage point reduction in the probability of presenting ISO (OR 0.43; 95% CI: 0.30 - 0.62).
Sr Editor La infección en el sitio operatorio (ISO), es la complicación quirúrgica postoperatoria más frecuente en cirugía general. Esta es más frecuente en casos de intervenciones de emergencias, compromete el pronóstico del paciente, ocasiona elevados costos en salud, y aumenta considerablemente el riesgo de reintervención. La terapia por presión negativa (TPN) es una estrategia innovadora que se planteó hace aproximadamente dos décadas, y que se ha reproducido paulatinamente en todo el mundo. Esto ocasiona que aún existan muchos vacíos en la evidencia cuando es utilizada en muchísimas enfermedades y bajo diferentes contextos. No obstante, permite obtener resultados contundentes en el tiempo de cicatrización, disminución de complicaciones (principalmente dehiscencia e ISO), disminución de estancia hospitalaria, entre otros factores.