References
An overview of postoperative wound care: surgical wound dehiscence
Abstract
Surgical wound dehiscence (SWD) is defined as the full or partial separation of a surgical incision site postoperatively; it can affect superficial or deeper tissue layers and may or may not expose the underlying structure. The causes behind SWD are complicated and multifactorial. It can be easy to assume that a dehisced wound has occurred to a surgical site infection, but this article aims to provide an overview of the non-infectious causes behind SWD and highlight that although SWD can occur alongside infection, not all infected surgical incisions will dehisce and vice versa in that not all SWD has an infectious process. Prevention is not always possible, but RVNs can play a vital role in the early identification and intervention methods used in the treatment and prevention of SWD by recognising when the wound healing process has been disrupted and implementing pre-operative and post-operative measures.
Postoperative wound complications can take many different forms and range from mild inflammatory symptoms to severe disruption of the surgical incision site, where the normal healing process is affected and can lead to partial or complete wound dehiscence.
Surgical wound dehiscence (SWD) is defined as the partial or complete separation of the wound edges at the surgical incision site. This disruption of the healing process can occur due to various factors, including technical, mechanical, and patient-related issues.
Knowing how common SWD is can be challenging, as even on the human healthcare side, the reporting systems tend to be split into individual surgery categories and their complication rates. When surgical site infections (SSIs) are considered, these can contribute to SWD rates and may be reported through a separate system (Sandy-Hodgetts et al, 2023). Registered veterinary nurses (RVNs) can play a vital role in assessing, reporting and treating SWD and contributing to prevention methods.
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