The Effect of Postoperative Dressing Change Frequency on Wound Healing and Complications in Patients Undergoing Carpal Tunnel Release: A Randomized Clinical Trial.

Objectives: Post-operative wound complications are relatively common. The development of an optimal protocol for the frequency of wound dressing change that results in minimal complications seems crucial. The current study aims to compare two different protocols of single and intermittent dressing change for patients undergoing carpal tunnel release (CTR) in terms of: 1) wound healing indicators and 2) complications. Methods: In this two-arm parallel randomized clinical trial study, 60 patients who were planned to undergo CTR were enrolled. The participants were randomly assigned to two groups: group A) receiving a single dressing, and group B) receiving intermittent dressing changes every other day. After two weeks, all patients were evaluated for epithelialization, exudate amount, localized pain, localized erythema, localized edema, delayed healing, necrosis, fibrosis, final overall wound condition, final skin condition as indicators of wound healing, and signs of infection. We also employed the Visual Analogue Scale (VAS) to evaluate the pain intensity. Results: There was no difference between the two groups in terms of basic demographic variables. The results revealed no significant difference in any of the measured wound healing indicators and complications except for the epithelialization rate which was higher in the single-dressing group (8 patients in the single group vs. 0 in the intermittent group; P-value < 0.001). Conclusion: Overall, the findings suggest that use of the intermittent dressing change protocol for CTR surgery wounds does not improve wound healing or mitigate complications, in comparison to the single dressing protocol, which is more cost-beneficial.