TABLE 1.

Study characteristics of the included trials.

Study (year)	Country (no. of participating centers)	Surgery type	Intervention vs. control for fascial closure	Intervention vs. control for skin closure	Primary trial outcome	Eligible participants for IPDMA a
Diener et al. (2014)	Germany (24)	Elective midline laparotomy	PDS Plus vs. PDS II	n.a.	SSI c	1,185
Ichida et al. (2018)	Japan (1)	Gastroenterological surgery	Polyglactin Plus vs. polyglactin	PDS Plus vs. PDS II	SSI c	426
Justinger et al. (2013)	Germany/Switzerland (1)	Elective open abdominal surgery	PDS Plus vs. PDS II	n.a.	SSI c	967
Mattavelli et al. (2015)	Italy (4)	Elective clean-contaminated colorectal surgery	PDS Plus vs. PDS II	Polyglactin Plus vs. polyglactin	SSI c	246
Nakamura et al. (2013)	Japan (1)	Elective colorectal surgery	Polyglactin Plus vs. polyglactin	n.a.	SSI c	192
Ruiz-Tovar et al. (2015)	Spain (2)	Surgery with intra-operative diagnosis of fecal peritonitis	Polyglactin Plus vs. polyglactin	n.a.	SSI c	101
Ruiz-Tovar et al. (2020)	Spain (3)	Emergency surgery for infection or peritoneal contamination	PDS Plus vs. PDS II	n.a.	AWD and SSI c	92
Baracs et al (2011) b	Hungary (7)	Elective colorectal laparotomy	PDS Plus vs. PDS II	n.a.	SSI d	458

Abbreviations: TCS, triclosan-coated sutures; AWD, abdominal wall dehiscence; SSI, surgical site infection; PDS, polydioxanone, n.a. = not applicable.

^a Reasons for exclusion of participant: laparoscopic surgery (n = 859), use of a non-comparative suture (n = 50), excluded in the original trial (n = 141), missing case report form (n = 10) (see Figure 1).

^b Data from this trial were not included in the primary analysis due to unresolved data integrity concerns (Supplementary Material, page 6).

^c According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention criteria, within 30 days after surgery.

^d Assessed by telephone follow-up 30 days after discharge. Patients with wound related symptoms were invited for clinical assessment.