To print: Select File and then Print from your browser's menu --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Title: Antimicrobial Sutures Reduce Infections in Brain Shunt Surgery URL: http://www.pslgroup.com/dg/2265FE.htm Doctor's Guide July 25, 2008
BUFFALO, NY -- July 25, 2008 -- Using antimicrobial sutures to secure the shunt and close the wound in children with hydrocephalus significantly reduces the number of shunt infections arising during the first 6 months after surgery, according to trial results that will appear in the August issue of the Journal of Neurosurgery: Pediatrics. Sixty-one children requiring shunt surgery were assigned randomly to undergo surgery with antimicrobial sutures or with usual sutures, which served as the control group. A total of 84 shunt procedures were performed over 21 months.
At the trial's end, the shunt infection rate in the study group was 4.3% compared with 21% in the control group.
"Our results showed that using antimicrobial sutures reduced infection risk by 16%," said Curtis J. Rozzelle, MD, University at Buffalo School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, Buffalo, New York, and first author on the paper.
"Closing wounds with antimicrobial sutures may reduce infections in procedures implanting other devices, such as pacemakers and neurostimulators, pumps that deliver pharmaceuticals, and shunts elsewhere in the body," he said.
Dr. Rozzelle and colleagues are planning to conduct a larger randomised, controlled trial to confirm their initial findings.
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