Surgery
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It has been estimated that 750,000 to 1 million surgical-site infections (SSIs) occur in the United States each year, causing substantial morbidity and mortality. Triclosan-coated sutures were developed as an adjunctive strategy for SSI risk reduction, but a recently published systematic literature review and meta-analysis suggested that no clinical benefit is associated with this technology. However, that study was hampered by poor selection of available randomized controlled trials (RCTs) and low patient numbers. The current systematic review involves 13 randomized, international RCTs, totaling 3,568 surgical patients. ⋯ Decreasing the risk for SSIs requires a multifaceted "care bundle" approach, and this meta-analysis of current, pooled, peer-reviewed, randomized controlled trials suggests a clinical effectiveness of antimicrobial-coated sutures (triclosan) in the prevention of SSIs, representing Center for Evidence-Based Medicine level 1a evidence.