In this episode of the IJGC podcast, Editor-in-Chief Dr. Pedro Ramirez, is joined by Dr. Mario Leitao to discuss prophylactic negative pressure wound therapy RCT. Dr. Leitao is currently an Attending Surgeon in the Department of Surgery at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center and a Professor in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at Weill Cornell Medical College. He currently serves as Program Director for the Gynecologic Oncology Fellowship. Dr. Leitao is also the Director for the Minimal Access and Robotic Surgery Program in the Department of Surgery for MSKCC. Dr. Mario Leitao is currently an Attending Surgeon in the Department of Surgery at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center and a Professor in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at Weill Cornell Medical College. He currently serves as Program Director for the Gynecologic Oncology Fellowship. Dr. Leitao is also the Director for the Minimal Access and Robotic Surgery Program in the Department of Surgery for MSKCC.

Highlights

1. SSI is a common postoperative complication that leads to significant healthcare costs in the near- and far-term

2. In our RCT, the use of a negative pressure wound therapy (NPWT) system did not improve wound complications (Superficial SSI) in a cohort of patients undergoing mostly laparotomy for gynecologic malignancies with closed laparotomy incisions.

3. There was also no signal of benefit in the small subgroup of morbidly obese patients.

4. Increasing BMI was the only independently associated risk for the development of a wound complication