Evaluation of subcutaneous negative pressure drain placement following emergency laparotomy- a hospital based observational study.

Introduction-Placement of negative suction drain in subcutaneous plane in emergency laparotomy has been shown to drastically reduce incidence of infection by many mechanisms like evacuation of seroma, evacuation of infected content thereby decreasing bacterial load which results in improved healing better wound management and decreased morbidity and hospital stay. Materials and methods-This was a tertiary hospital based observational study carried in the department of general surgery government medical college Srinagar Kashmir, over a period of two years from august 2017 to august 2019 entitling 100 patients who underwent emergency midline laparotomies for purulent peritonitis. Results- mean age in group A was 32.7 and mean age in group B was 35.2, males were predominate both groups, In both the groups the underlying pathology was mostly perforated appendix or duodenal perforations which contributes to almost half of the patients, . development of post-operative surgical site infection were less common in vacuum assisted group which was 7% incomparison to other group which has 42%,mean duration of hospital stay in group A was 11.2 days and in Group B it was 7.8 days. Conclusion-placement of subcutaneous negative pressure drain not only improves better management of contaminated-dirty wounds better and also ensures early recovery.