Post Operative Dressing After Clean Elective Hand Surgery

Very little has been published about the optimal post operative dressing protocol, and no practical conclusion has emerged from a meta-analysis published in 2013. Even fewer studies focused on that topic specifically in hand surgery. Nevertheless, the functional impairment due to a dressing in the hand is much greater than anywhere else, due to the constant use of hands in daily life activities. Yet, habits differs widely following surgeon's preference, from daily change with application of an antimicrobial unguent, to unchanged dressing until the first follow up consultation after 2 weeks, to complete removal of the dressing and basic soap and water cleaning at postoperative day (POD) 1. Those varying recommendations have functional and logistical implication for the patients, especially the elderlies, for whom autonomy is a fragile status that can be dramatically impaired by such protocols. The goal of this study is to define which post operative dressing protocol is optimal in terms of wound complications (disunion, infection)