VetPartners Ltd, Spitfire House, Aviator Ct, York, YO30 4UZ, UK.
BMC Vet Res. 2024 Sep 28;20(1):430. doi: 10.1186/s12917-024-04276-5.
Reusable surgical drapes have a lower lifetime environmental impact than disposable drapes in most cases. There is limited evidence regarding whether drape choice impacts patient outcomes including post-operative wound complications. The aim of this study is to compare wound complication rates following routine neutering surgeries in cats and dogs when reusable drapes are used as compared with disposable drapes.
The trial will be conducted as a pragmatic, multi-centre, parallel group randomised controlled trial in the UK. Dogs and cats undergoing routine neutering will be randomised to disposable or reusable drapes with all other aspects of care occurring as they usually would at the practice. The required sample size is 2,850, with 4750 animals to be recruited from up to ten practices to allow for a 40% loss to follow-up. Demographic data and details on peri-operative care will be collected at the time of surgery. Post-operative wound complications will be assessed and recorded as usual at each practice using clinical codes. The post-operative wound clinical codes and any antibiotic use within 30 days of surgery will be retrieved from the practice management software. The primary outcome that will be compared between the two groups is the rate of post-operative wound complications within 30 days of surgery which will be analysed by multivariable logistic regression with a binary outcome of wound complication (yes/no). Secondary outcomes are the prevalence of different types of complications and antibiotic use within 30 days of surgery which will be compared between the two groups by chi square analysis.
Our hypothesis is that there will be no difference in post-operative wound complication rates between disposable and reusable drapes. If the likely rate of post-surgical wound complications with reusable drapes is similar to that with disposable drapes, then veterinary clinical teams can choose the more sustainable option, confident that their patients will not be impacted by this choice.
We have retrospectively registered the protocol on the Open Science Framework on 14 Nov 2023 (Trial registration entry: https://doi.org/10.17605/OSF.IO/72HMA ).
在大多数情况下，可重复使用的手术巾比一次性手术巾具有更低的生命周期环境影响。关于手术巾选择是否会影响包括术后伤口并发症在内的患者结果的证据有限。本研究的目的是比较在英国进行常规绝育手术时使用可重复使用手术巾与使用一次性手术巾时的伤口并发症发生率。
该试验将作为一项实用的、多中心、平行组随机对照试验进行，在英国进行。接受常规绝育的狗和猫将被随机分配到使用一次性或可重复使用的手术巾，所有其他护理方面都将按照惯例在诊所进行。所需的样本量为 2850 例，最多从 10 个诊所招募 4750 只动物，以允许 40%的失访率。人口统计学数据和围手术期护理细节将在手术时收集。术后伤口并发症将按照惯例在每个诊所进行评估和记录，使用临床代码。术后伤口临床代码以及手术后 30 天内使用的任何抗生素将从诊所管理软件中检索。将通过多变量逻辑回归分析比较两组之间的主要结局，即手术后 30 天内的术后伤口并发症发生率，二元结局为伤口并发症（是/否）。次要结局是手术后 30 天内不同类型并发症的发生率和抗生素使用情况，将通过卡方分析比较两组之间的差异。
我们的假设是，在一次性和可重复使用的手术巾之间，术后伤口并发症的发生率没有差异。如果使用可重复使用手术巾的术后伤口并发症的可能发生率与使用一次性手术巾相似，那么兽医临床团队可以选择更可持续的选择，相信他们的患者不会受到这种选择的影响。
我们已于 2023 年 11 月 14 日在开放科学框架上对方案进行了回顾性注册（试验注册条目：https://doi.org/10.17605/OSF.IO/72HMA）。
