Does the Presence of a Preexisting Open Wound Increase Complication Risk for Implant Procedures?

Despite limited evidence, a common belief in surgical practice is that patients should not undergo elective surgery until any open wounds heal because of the risk of seeding infection to the new surgical site. To our knowledge, this is the first study to analyze postoperative complication rates for implants placed in the context of open wounds using the American College of Surgeons National Surgical Quality Improvement Program database. We examined 30-day postoperative infections for breast, hip, knee, and spine implants using the 2012-2016 American College of Surgeons National Surgical Quality Improvement Program database. Patients were excluded for missing data and propensity matched 1:10 for demographics and comorbidities to minimize confounders. Complication rates were assessed using Pearson χ2 tests. Of 475,101 patients who received breast, hip, knee, or spine implants, 1491 did so with an open wound. After propensity score matching, the overall complication rate remained higher with the open wound cohort (6.7% vs 3.8%, P < 0.001). Although the presence of an open wound was associated with an increased risk of superficial surgical site infection, it was not associated with an increased risk of organ space surgical site infection, the site best correlated with infection at the implant. Nor was the presence of an open wound associated with a statistically significantly increased risk of deep incisional surgical site infection or wound dehiscence. After controlling for demographics, preoperative comorbidities, and surgical factors, the presence of an open wound before implant surgery is associated with an increased risk of complications, readmission, and reoperation, but not necessarily infection at the surgical site.