Abstract
Our objective was to assess the incidence, risk factors and clinical outcomes of dehiscence after foot surgery in diabetic patients. We used pooled patient-level data from two randomised clinical trials with 240 diabetic patients who required foot surgery for infections. Most patients (n = 180, 75.0%) had surgical wound closure. We defined dehisced surgical wounds (DSW) when the surgical site was not completely epithelialized with no drainage after sutures/staples were removed with a 2-week validation of healing. We evaluated the time to heal, re-infection, re-ulceration, hospital admissions and amputations. Moderate and severe infection was based on criteria of the International Working Group on the Diabetic Foot. We used χ(2) and t-test and Mann-Whitney U for comparison of clinical events, with α of <0.05. DSW occurred in 137 (76.1%) patients. DSW patients were more likely to have hypertension (62.8% vs. 81.8%, p = 0.01), high ESR (59.1 ± 37.9 vs. 75.9 ± 37.6, p = 0.01), low toe brachial indices (0.8 ± 0.2) (0.7 ± 0.2, p = 0.005), toe brachial indices <0.6 (16.7% vs. 40.9%, p = 0.008), and low skin perfusion pressure measurements (dorsal medial 71.0 ± 29.4 vs. 59.3 ± 23.3, p = 0.01, and plantar medial 81.8 ± 24.9 vs. 72.2 ± 20.4, p = 0.02). During 12-month follow-up, DSW patients were 12.9 times more likely to have re-infection (0% vs. 12.4%, p = 0.02) and 6.8 times more likely to require amputation (2.3% vs. 13.9%, p = 0.04). The median healing time (28, 22.5-35.0 vs. 114.0, 69.0; 365, p = 0.001), and median length of hospitalisation were longer in DSW patients (12.0, 9.01-9.0 vs. 15.0, 11.0-24.0, p = 0.04). There was a high incidence of DSW, associated with poor clinical outcomes.