Peritoneal closure or non-closure at caesarean section.

At caesarean section, the closure or non-closure of the parietal and/or the visceral peritoneum has short-term and long-term advantages and disadvantages. The majority of reports have compared double closure vs double non-closure, non-closure of the parietal, or non-closure of the visceral parietal, with special emphasis on operation time, febrile morbidity, and duration of hospital stay. The present study compares the three methods in 692 consecutive caesarean sections in a South African rural hospital, with special emphasis on wound sepsis, operation time and febrile morbidity. The prevalence of wound sepsis and febrile morbidity was 4.9% and 2.5%, respectively. The only significant difference between the three groups was that double closure resulted in the longest operation time.