FREQUENCY, MANIFESTATIONS, AND CORRELATES OF IMPAIRED HEALING OF SAPHENOUS-VEIN HARVEST INCISIONS

OBJECTIVE: To describe the frequency, manifestations, and correlates o f impaired healing of saphenous vein (SV) harvest incisions in hospita lized patients who had undergone coronary artery bypass grafting(CABG) . DESIGN: Prospective, descriptive, correlational. SETTING: West Coast university-affiliated medical center. PATIENTS: Thirty-two English-sp eaking adults who had undergone CABG. OUTCOME MEASURES: Impaired wound healing of SV-harvest incisions. RESULTS: The overall incidence of im paired healing was 43.8%. The most frequent manifestations of impaired wound healing at discharge were prolonged erythema (8/32), prolonged drainage (8/32), and both prolonged erythema and drainage (2/32). Corr elates of impaired healing of SV-harvest incisions were body mass inde x (product-moment correlation = 0.39, p = 0.026) and preoperative use of diuretics (point biserial correlation = 0.42, p = 0.016). CONCLUSIO NS: Impaired healing of SV-harvest incisions in this sample occurred m ore frequently than previously indicated in the literature. Although s evere wound infections were infrequent, a high degree of impaired heal ing occurred (43.8% of patients who had undergone CABG). Future studie s need to explore the long-term effects of impaired healing and test i nterventions to mitigate impaired healing in this population.