Closure of Appendectomy Wound Comparing 2 Methods: Subcuticular and Mattress Suture

Acute appendicitis is the most common cause of acute abdomen. Appendectomy is only curative treatment for acute appendicitis. The patients, after appendectomy complain from ugly configuration of suture site, scar problem is stitch abscess and wound infection after appendectomy. This is aesthetically important, because appendicitis is prevalent in the second and third decades of life. This study compared wound closure result by two methods; Subcuticular and Mattress suture.

In this analytic, clinical trial, 207 patients (105 group A and 102 group B) with the initial diagnosis of appendicitis were appendectomised at Shahid Sadooghi, Mortaz and Saidoshohada hospitals, from April 2005 to December 2006. In 4 follow up visit, patients were clinically examed for Maximum of wound scar width, wound infection and stitch abscess to 3 months after appendectomy at the clinics. Collected data were analyzed with ANOVA test using SPSS11.5 software.

The Mean Scar width in Subcuticular group (A) was 0.96 mm and in Mattress group (B) was 7 mm. There was significant difference between two groups (P.Value=0.0001).The Abscess in the Subcuticular group was seen in one case (0.8%) and in the Mattress group no abscess was seen. There was no significant difference between two groups (P.Value = 0.45). There was no case of wound infection in the two groups. In this study, the age and gender factors were confunding and by using co-variance analysis, thay were taken care of.

Considering the results of this study, the Subcuticular method is a better option in closure of an appendectomy wound.