Suture versus staple closure of abdominal incisions in clean abdominal surgeries: A prospective comparative observational study

Background and Aim: To compare the outcomes of abdominal incision closure by staples and suture based on surgical site infection (SSI), postoperative pain, postoperative scarring, wound dehiscence, cost effectiveness and speed of incision closure. Methods: Of the120 patients, 60 underwent skin closure with staples and the remaining 60 with sutures. Wounds wereevaluated on postoperativedays(POD) 3, 7 and 14 for signs of infection, wound gaping,postoperative pain and at 1 month for cosmesis. Intraoperative assessment was done for duration of skin closure and cost-effectiveness. The data was coded and entered in Microsoft excel and then analysed using statistical software, SSPS. Results: SSI in staple group (20%) was higher than suture group. Postoperative pain showed similar results with p value 0.193. Sutures were cost-effective when compared to staples. Wound dehiscence was found in 1 (1.7%) and 4 patients (6.7%) in staple and suture group respectively with a p value of 0.171. Median time for closure of the wound is found to be 2.64 min in staple group and 9.04 min in suture group with p value of 0.00. Staple group had better cosmetic outcome when compared to suture group. Conclusions: Skin staples significantly reduce the operative time and provide better cosmetic outcome and although expensive, has no significant difference in SSI, postoperative pain postoperative complication and wound dehiscence as compared to skin suture material.