A comparison of upper abdominal wound closure with monofilament nylon and polyglycolic acid.

In a trial of 104 consecutive patients undergoing upper abdominal surgery, 62 wounds were closed with continuous layered nylon and 42 with interrupted mass PGA sutures. All wounds were closed by one surgeon. There was a significantly greater incidence of wound infection (P less than 0.01) and incisional hernia (P less than 0.05) in the group closed with PGA. Wounds closed with PGA took longer to suture (1.00 min/cm) than wounds closed with nylon (0.76 min/cm), a highly significant difference (P less than 0.001). From this study it is recommended that upper abdominal surgical wounds should be closed with a continuous nylon suture.