Microbial sealants do not decrease surgical site infection for clean-contaminated colorectal procedures

Background: Surgical site infections (SSI) are costly complications that may cause significant morbidity and increase the cost of care, particularly in colorectal surgery. Microbial sealants (MS) are a new class of wound barriers aimed at decreasing SSI; however, there is only evidence of benefit in clean class 1 procedures. Based on its success in class 1 procedures, we hypothesized that a microbial sealant could reduce the rate of SSI by half for clean-contaminated colorectal procedures (class 2). Methods: This was a single institution, multihospital, prospective, randomized study approved by the institutional review board.