Antimicrobial-impregnated Sutures Reduce Surgical Site Infections in Plastic Surgery: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis
Sarah Petrecca, Simran K. Chandawarkar, Hassan ElHawary, Rawan Elabd, Jeffrey E. Janis · 2026
Read Antimicrobial-impregnated Sutures Reduce Surgical Site Infections in Plastic Surgery: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis by Sarah Petrecca, Simran K. Chandawarkar, Hassan ElHawary, Rawan Elabd, Jeffrey E. Janis (2026) in the Tower of Babel, a free online library of public-domain works preserved in clean, searchable text. No sign-up. The full text is served as a plain-text file at a predictable URL, where text is present: https://antarctic-labs.com/tower-of-babel/PMC13423361.txt.
Description
Petrecca and colleagues pooled studies in 2026 on stitches coated with antimicrobial agents in plastic surgery. Such coated sutures aim to cut surgical site infections, a common problem that slows healing and raises costs. Together they covered 1,553 patients, roughly half treated with coated stitches and half with plain ones.
Coated stitches were tied to a clear drop in infections, with risk about a third lower overall. The benefit was strong in abdominal surgery but not proven in breast surgery, where the data were weaker. Coated stitches also gave better cosmetic results and fewer poor healing outcomes in the pooled data. Rates of wounds splitting open did not differ between groups. The authors support coated sutures in plastic surgery but call for randomised trials to compare agents and body areas.
Catalog record
| CREATOR | Sarah Petrecca, Simran K. Chandawarkar, Hassan ElHawary, Rawan Elabd, Jeffrey E. Janis |
|---|---|
| YEAR | 2026 |
| COLLECTION | PAPERS |
| FORMAT | TXT |
| FILE SIZE | 25 KB |
| LICENSE | https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0 |
| RIGHTS | CC BY |
| SOURCE | Europe PMC |