Surgical Site Infection Prevention Blog

Which Surgeries Require Silver Wound Dressings to Prevent Infection?

  

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Silver plated wound dressings are effective at preventing infection -- a number of studies have proven it.  But does it makes sense to use silver wound dressings for every surgery that's performed?  Do certain surgeries pose such a high risk of infection that silver wound dressings should be standard protocol?

Are silver wound dressings necessary after every surgery?  Absolutely not.

There are many routine surgeries that actually pose a very low risk of infection.  In these surgeries, it really does not make financial sense to apply silver wound dressings as they are more costly than standard gauze dressings.

Are silver wound dressing necessary after high-risk surgeries?  Absolutely yes.

The incidence of Surgical Site Infections (SSIs) is directly related to the type of surgery being performed and the natural bacterial flora of the organs involved in the procedure. 

The list below identifies various types of surgical procedures that have an extremely high risk of infection*.  These types of surgeries would definitely benefit from the application of silver wound dressings:

• Placement of grafts, prostheses, implants

• Cardiac

• Neurosurgery

• Breast

• Opthalmic

•  anterior segment resection

• vitrectomy

• scleral buckles

• Orthopedic

• total joint replacement

• closed fractures/use of nails, bone plates, other internal fixation devices

• functional repair without implant/device

• trauma

• Vascular

• Appendectomy

• Biliary tract

• Colorectal

• Gastroduodenal

• Head and neck

• major procedures with incision through oropharyngeal mucosa

• Obstetrics and gynecologic

• Urologic (may not be beneficial if urine is sterile)

* Source: Mangram AJ, Horan TC, Pearson ML, Silver LC, Jarvis WR. Guideline for Prevention of Surgical Site Infection, 1999. Infection Control Hospital Epidemiology. 1999; 20(4):247-278. Available at: http://cdc.gov/ncidod/dhqp/pdf/guidelines/SSI.pdf.

Clinical studies conclude that silver nylon wound dressings, in particular, are extremely effective at reducing infection in these types of high-risk surgical procedures.  Read the most recent groundbreaking study "The Use of Silver Nylon in Preventing Surgical Site Infections Following Colon and Rectal Surgery," which was recently published in Diseases of the Colon & Rectum 54:8 (2011).

Reduce Surgical Site Infections
with Silverlon® Antimicrobial Dressings