الفهرس 
INTRODUCTIONOnly 14 pages are availabe for public view
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Abstract
Most surgical wounds are categorized as acute wounds, healing without complication in an expected time frame. At the same time, nurses have to be conscious of how the wound will heal to ensure optimal postoperative function and cosmetic results. To do this an understanding of the principles of surgical wound healing, assessment, cleansing and wound dressing as well as alternative techniques for wound dressing, is needed. Nowadays, it is recognized that the management of surgical wounds may be planned to leave the wound exposed, and there is no need for its covering.
On the other hand, the management of surgical wounds still involves the use of dry dressings, such as conventional gauze. The aim of the present study was to compare the conventional dressing versus early exposure after major abdominal surgeries. This was clinically tested at “the general surgery units” of the Medical Research Institute Hospital, at Alexandria University. The study comprised 50 adult patients with major abdominal surgeries with clean closed and sutured surgical wounds. They were free from chronic immunocompromised illnesses as uncontrolled diabetes mellitus. Laparoscopic surgeries were not included in the study. The patients were divided into two groups, the exposure and the conventional group.
The tool of the study was developed based on review of the related literature. It was named ”the surgical wound assessment sheet”. Two main parts was included in the tool, one of them is personal and clinical data, and the other is wound observation and follow up. The first part included the personal data such as age, sex, occupation, level of education, residence, and date of admission. The clinical data was divided into three items; they were preoperative data like patient’s diagnosis, anthropometric measurements, laboratory investigations, prophylactic antibiotic, skin preparation of the surgical site and date of operation.
Intraoperative and postoperative data also were included in the clinical data part. The duration of surgery and wound closure technique as well as material of suturing were included as the intraoperative data, while the postoperative data comprised name of surgery done, wound type, presence and type of drain(s), duration of antibiotic administration and the activity level of the patients using the activity level scoring scale.
Most surgical wounds are categorized as acute wounds, healing without complication in an expected time frame. At the same time, nurses have to be conscious of how the wound will heal to ensure optimal postoperative function and cosmetic results. To do this an understanding of the principles of surgical wound healing, assessment, cleansing and wound dressing as well as alternative techniques for wound dressing, is needed. Nowadays, it is recognized that the management of surgical wounds may be planned to leave the wound exposed, and there is no need for its covering.
On the other hand, the management of surgical wounds still involves the use of dry dressings, such as conventional gauze. The aim of the present study was to compare the conventional dressing versus early exposure after major abdominal surgeries.