• Barnaby C Reeves, Leila Rooshenas, Rhiannon C Macefield, Mark Woodward, Nicky J Welton, Benjamin R Waterhouse, Andrew D Torrance, Sean Strong, Dimitrios Siassakos, William Seligman, Chris A Rogers, Lloyd Rickard, Anne Pullyblank, Caroline Pope, Thomas D Pinkney, Samir Pathak, Anwar Owais, Jamie O'Callaghan, Stephen O'Brien, Dmitri Nepogodiev, Khaldoun Nadi, Charlotte E Murkin, Tonia Munder, Tom Milne, David Messenger, Christel M McMullan, Jonathan M Mathers, Matthew Mason, Morwena Marshall, Richard Lovegrove, Robert J Longman, Jessica Lloyd, Jeffrey Lim, Kathryn Lee, Vijay Korwar, Daniel Hughes, George Hill, Rosie Harris, Mohammed Hamdan, Hannah Gould Brown, Rachael Gooberman-Hill, James Glasbey, Caroline Fryer, Lucy Ellis, Daisy Elliott, Jo C Dumville, Tim Draycott, Jenny L Donovan, David Cotton, Joanna Coast, Madeleine Clout, Melanie J Calvert, Benjamin E Byrne, Oliver D Brown, Natalie S Blencowe, Katarzyna D Bera, Joanne Bennett, Richard Bamford, Danya Bakhbakhi, Muhammad Atif, Kate Ashton, Elizabeth Armstrong, Lazaros Andronis, Piriyankan Ananthavarathan, and Jane M Blazeby.
• Clinical Trials and Evaluation Unit, Department of Translational Health Sciences, Bristol Medical School, University of Bristol, Bristol, UK.
• Health Technol Assess. 2019 Aug 1; 23 (39): 1-166.

BackgroundSurgical site infection (SSI) affects up to 20% of people with a primary closed wound after surgery. Wound dressings may reduce SSI.ObjectiveTo assess the feasibility of a multicentre randomised controlled trial (RCT) to evaluate the effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of dressing types or no dressing to reduce SSI in primary surgical wounds.DesignPhase A - semistructured interviews, outcome measure development, practice survey, literature reviews and value-of-information analysis. Phase B - pilot RCT with qualitative research and questionnaire validation. Patients and the public were involved.SettingUsual NHS care.ParticipantsPatients undergoing elective/non-elective abdominal surgery, including caesarean section.InterventionsPhase A - none. Phase B - simple dressing, glue-as-a-dressing (tissue adhesive) or 'no dressing'.Main Outcome MeasuresPhase A - pilot RCT design; SSI, patient experience and wound management questionnaires; dressing practices; and value-of-information of a RCT. Phase B - participants screened, proportions consented/randomised; acceptability of interventions; adherence; retention; validity and reliability of SSI measure; and cost drivers.Data SourcesPhase A - interviews with patients and health-care professionals (HCPs), narrative data from published RCTs and data about dressing practices. Phase B - participants and HCPs in five hospitals.ResultsPhase A - we interviewed 102 participants. HCPs interpreted 'dressing' variably and reported using available products. HCPs suggested practical/clinical reasons for dressing use, acknowledged the weak evidence base and felt that a RCT including a 'no dressing' group was acceptable. A survey showed that 68% of 1769 wounds (727 participants) had simple dressings and 27% had glue-as-a-dressing. Dressings were used similarly in elective and non-elective surgery. The SSI questionnaire was developed from a content analysis of existing SSI tools and interviews, yielding 19 domains and 16 items. A main RCT would be valuable to the NHS at a willingness to pay of £20,000 per quality-adjusted life-year. Phase B - from 4 March 2016 to 30 November 2016, we approached 862 patients for the pilot RCT; 81.1% were eligible, 59.4% consented and 394 were randomised (simple, n = 133; glue, n = 129; no dressing, n = 132); non-adherence was 3 out of 133, 8 out of 129 and 20 out of 132, respectively. SSI occurred in 51 out of 281 participants. We interviewed 55 participants. All dressing strategies were acceptable to stakeholders, with no indication that adherence was problematic. Adherence aids and patients' understanding of their allocated dressing appeared to be key. The SSI questionnaire response rate overall was 67.2%. Items in the SSI questionnaire fitted a single scale, which had good reliability (test-retest and Cronbach's alpha of > 0.7) and diagnostic accuracy (c-statistic = 0.906). The key cost drivers were hospital appointments, dressings and redressings, use of new medicines and primary care appointments.LimitationsMultiple activities, often in parallel, were challenging to co-ordinate. An amendment took 4 months, restricting recruitment to the pilot RCT. Only 67% of participants completed the SSI questionnaire. We could not implement photography in theatres.ConclusionsA main RCT of dressing strategies is feasible and would be valuable to the NHS. The SSI questionnaire is sufficiently accurate to be used as the primary outcome. A main trial with three groups (as in the pilot) would be valuable to the NHS, using a primary outcome of SSI at discharge and patient-reported SSI symptoms at 4-8 weeks.Trial RegistrationPhase A - Current Controlled Trials ISRCTN06792113; Phase B - Current Controlled Trials ISRCTN49328913.FundingThis project was funded by the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Health Technology Assessment programme and will be published in full in Health Technology Assessment; Vol. 23, No. 39. See the NIHR Journals Library website for further project information. Funding was also provided by the Medical Research Council ConDuCT-II Hub (reference number MR/K025643/1).

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