The European journal of surgery = Acta chirurgica
-
Multicenter Study Comparative Study
Are routine preoperative chest radiographs useful in general surgery? A prospective, multicentre study in 3959 patients. Association des Chirurgiens de l'Assistance Publique pour les Evaluations médicales.
To find out which patients about to undergo general or gastrointestinal operations could have the routine preoperative posteroanterior chest radiograph omitted. ⋯ Preoperative chest radiographs should be routine for patients about to undergo general and gastrointestinal operations with three or more risk factors, and done selectively for patients with one or two. Routine preoperative films are unnecessary for patients with no risk factors.
-
To study the influence of suture technique on healing of midline laparotomy wounds. ⋯ Suture technique affects both early and late wound complications. The rate of incisional hernia is lower if the suture length: wound length ratio is 4 or more. However, a high ratio should not be achieved by suturing with a stitch length of 5 cm or more as this is associated with an increase in the rate of wound infection.