Table 2.
A summary of previous systematic reviews on this topic area highlighting number of studies, number of participants and key findings
| Author | Date | Journal | No of studies | No of participants | Findings | Risk of bias | Grade |
| Wang et al 27 | 2013 | British Journal of Surgery | 17 | 3720 | Triclosan-coated sutures significantly reduced SSI rate compared with standard sutures. RR 0.7 (95% CI 0.57 to 0.85). Triclosan-coated sutures significantly reduced SSI rate in ‘clean’ and ‘clean-contaminated’ surgery. |
Included | Not included |
| Edmiston et al 28 | 2013 | Surgery | 13 | 3568 | Triclosan-coated sutures significantly reduced SSI rate compared with standard suture. RR 0.734 (95% CI 0.59 to 0.91). No subgroup analysis was performed. |
Not included | Not included |
| Daoud et al 30 | 2014 | Surgical infections | 15 | 4800 | Triclosan-coated sutures significantly reduced SSI rate compared with standard sutures. RR 0.67 (95% CI 0.54 to 0.84). No subgroup analysis was performed. |
Not included | Not included |
| Apisarnthanarak et al 58 | 2015 | Infection Control and Hospital Epidemiology | 29 (22 RCT and 7 non-RCT) | 11 942 | Triclosan-coated sutures significantly reduced SSI rate compared with standard suture. RR 0.65 (95% CI 0.549 to 0.769). RR for RCT alone 0.74 (95% CI 0.61 to 0.89). Triclosan-coated sutures significantly reduced SSI rate for all CDC wound classifications. |
Not included | Not included |
| Guo et al 31 | 2015 | Journal of Surgical Research | 13 | 5256 | Triclosan-coated sutures significantly reduced risk of SSI compared with standard suture. RR 0.76 (95% CI 0.65 to 0.88). Triclosan-coated sutures significantly reduced risk of SSI in abdominal surgery. RR 0.70 (95% CI 0.63 to 0.99). There was no significant difference in cardiac and breast surgery. |
Included | Not included |
| Sandini et al 63 | 2016 | Medicine | 6 (only included elective colorectal surgery) | 2168 | Triclosan-coated sutures did not significantly reduce the risk of SSI compared with standard sutures in elective colorectal surgery. OR 0.81 (95% CI 0.58 to 1.13) | Included | Not included |
| Wu et al 59 | 2017 | European Journal of Microbiology and Infectious Disorders | 18 (13 RCTs and 5 non RCTs) | 7458 | Triclosan-coated sutures significantly reduced risk of SSI compared with standard suture in both the RCTs (OR 0.72; 95% CI 0.59 to 0.88) and the non- RCTs (OR 0.58; 95% CI 0.40 to 0.83). Triclosan-coated sutures significantly reduced the risk of SSIs in clean surgery. | Included | Included |
| de Jonge et al 32 | 2017 | British Journal of Surgery | 21 | 6462 | Triclosan-coated sutures significantly reduced risk of SSI compared with standard suture. RR 0.72 (95% CI 0.60 to 0.86). | Included | Not included |
| Leaper et al62 | 2017 | British Journal of Surgery | 34 (20 RCTs and 14 non-RCTs) | 16 762 | Triclosan-coated sutures significantly reduced risk of SSI compared with standard sutures. OR 0.61 (95% CI 0.52 to 0.73). No significant difference in SSI rate for ‘contaminated’ or ‘dirty’ wounds |
Not included | Not included |
| Konstantelias et al 61 | 2017 | Acta Chirurgica Belgica 2017 | 30 (19 RCTs and 11 non- RCTs) | 15 385 | Triclosan-coated sutures significantly reduced risk of SSI compared with standard suture. RR 0.68 (95% CI 0.57 to 0.81). Triclosan-coated sutures significantly reduced risk of SSI in clean, clean-contaminated and ‘contaminated surgery’. |
Not included | Not included |
| Henriksen et al 60 | 2017 | Hernia | 8 (only included studies reporting abdominal wall closure) | 3641 | Triclosan-coated sutures significantly reduced risk of SSI compared with standard suture in abdominal wall closure. OR 0.67 (95% CI 0.46 to 0.98). | Not included | Not included |
CDC, centre for disease control; RCTs, randomised controlled trials; RR, relative risk; SSIs, surgical site infections.