A comparison of surgical site infections in children after stoma reversal between purse-string and linear closure

Background To reduce the surgical site infections (SSI), the purse-string closure technique has been widely performed and has also been recommended in adult stoma reversal. However, for children, some debate still exists. This study aims to compare the SSI rates in children between the purse-string and the linear for the skin closure of stoma reversal. Methods The data were collected from pediatric patients, who had undergone either purse-string or linear closure for elective surgery of stoma reversal from two university hospitals between January 2016 and December 2019. Results The purse-string and linear closure had been performed on 31 and 45 patients, respectively. At 30 days after surgery, three patients in the purse-string closure group had developed SSI compared to 14 patients in the linear closure group (9.7 vs. 31.1%, p = 0.028). Furthermore, there had been no significant difference in the overall post-operative complications. In multivariate analysis, the SSI had been significantly lower in patients with purse-string closure (OR 0.21, 95% CI 0.05-0.86, p = 0.029). Conclusion By employing the purse-string closure technique for skin closure of stoma reversal, there had been a significantly lower SSI rate compared to linear closure with no difference in the length of hospital stay.