Riassunto dello studio

One hundred and thirteen patients who had undergone an elective primary hip or knee arthroplasty were randomized to receive the Mepilex Border Post-Op wound dressing or the Aquacel Surgical wound dressing. The primary outcome of interest was the incidence of wound dressing failure. Secondary outcomes of interest included the following: incidence of adverse events, incidence of investigator satisfaction with ease of applying of dressing, incidence of investigator satisfaction with ease of removal of dressing, patient satisfaction with wearing the dressing during rehabilitation training, overall satisfaction with the wound dressing, incidence of redness of the skin under the dressing, incidence of feeling itchy under the dressing, incidence of skin tears, incidence of systemic infections, incidence of blister formation, pain on a Visual Analogue Scale (VAS) before dressing removal, pain on VAS during dressing removal, incidence of wound exudate, incidence of serious adverse events. All outcomes were measured during surgery and four days post-operation. The results revealed that no statistically significant difference was observed between the two wound dressings for the incidence of wound dressing failure (p=0.8682). Investigator satisfaction in applying the dressing (p<0.0001), removing the dressing (p<0.0001), patient satisfaction of wearing the dressing in training (p<0.05), and overall experience using the dressing (p<0.05) were all significantly in favour of the Mepilex wound dressing.