Total Hip Arthroplasty and Surgical Wound Closure: Sutures Versus Staples

Abstract

Discrepancies exist between studies that compare sutures and staples. We retrospectively reviewed 142 consecutive cases of total hip arthroplasty that had surgical wound re-approximation by either staples or absorbable subcuticular sutures. To our knowledge, this is the largest analysis of its kind in the literature. There were equal numbers of cases of sutures and staples (n=71). Two (2.8%) patients in the staple group developed an infection (one superficial and one organ/space) and 1 (1.4%) patient in the suture group developed a superficial infection. The mean total surgical time for the suture group was 119.6 minutes (sd=39.0) and 115.3 minutes (sd=24.2) for the staple group. No significant association was found between closure type and complications or surgical time (p>0.05 for all).