Frequency, manifestations, and correlates of impaired healing of saphenous vein harvest incisions

Objective cribe the frequency, manifestations, and correlates of impaired healing of saphenous vein (SV) harvest incisions in hospitalized patients who had undergone coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG). ctive, descriptive, correlational. g oast university-affiliated medical center. ts -two English-speaking adults who had undergone CABG. e Measures ed wound healing of SV-harvest incisions. s erall indidence of impaired 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). Correlates of impaired healing of SV-harvest incisions were body mass index (product-moment correlation=0.39, p=0.026) and preoperative use of diuretics (point biserial correlation=0.42, p=0.016). sions ed healing of SV-harvest incisions in this sample occurred more frequently than previously indicated in the literature. Although severe wound infections were infrequent, a high degree of impaired healing occurred (43.8% of patients who had undergone CABG). Future studies need to explore the long-term effects of impaired healing and test interventions to mitigate impaired healing in this population.