Applicability of results unclear for patients with higher BMI
Sarah M. Temkin, MD, a gynecologic oncologist who was not involved with the study, said in an interview that the results by Leitao and colleagues answer the question of whether patients undergoing surgery for gynecologic malignancy require NPWT, but raised questions about patient selection in the study.
“I think it’s hard to take data from this type of high-end surgical practice and apply it to the general population,” she said, noting the median BMI of 26 kg/m2 for patients included in the study. A study that included only patients with a BMI of 40 kg/m2 or higher “would have made these results more applicable,” she said.
The low rate of wound complications in the study could be explained by patient selection, Dr. Temkin explained. She cited her own retrospective study from 2016 that showed a wound complication rate of 27.3% for patients receiving prophylactic NPWT where the BMI for the group was 41.29 kg/m2 compared with a complication rate of 19.7% for patients receiving standard care who had a BMI of 30.67 kg/m2.
“It’s hard to cross trial compare, but that’s significantly higher than what they saw in this prospective study, and I would say that’s a difference with the patient population,” she said. “I think the question of how to reduce surgical site infections and wound complications in the heavy patient with comorbidities is still unanswered.”
The question is important because patients with a higher BMI and medical comorbidities “still need cancer surgery and methods to reduce the morbidity of that surgery,” Dr. Temkin said. “I think this is an unmet need.”
This study was funded in part by a support grant from NIH/NCI Cancer Center, and KCI/Acelity provided part of the study protocol. Nine authors reported personal and institutional relationships in the form of personal fees, grants, stock ownership, consultancies, and speakers bureau positions with AstraZeneca, Biom’Up, Bovie Medical Co., C Surgeries, CMR, ConMed, Covidien, Ethicon, GlaxoSmithKline, GRAIL, Intuitive Surgical Inc., JNJ, Medtronic, Merck, Mylan, Olympus, Stryker/Novadaq, TransEnterix Inc., UpToDate, and Verthermia Inc. Dr. Temkin reported no relevant financial disclosures.