Aim of this prospective randomized study was to investigate the necessity of suturing of subcutaneous fat tissue in elective abdominal surgery. Four hundred fifteen patients undergoing elective abdominal surgery were admitted to the trial.
The patients were divided into two basic groups according to wound contamination: clean operation (n=201) and clean-contaminated operation (n=214). The precentages of complications in groups with and without subcutaneous suture were statistically compared using Yates corrected chisquare two-tailed test.
There were no statistically significant group differences in infectious and non-infectious wound complications. These results suggest that omission of subcutaneous fat tissue suturing does not increase the occurence og infectious or non-infectious wound complication.