Objective: The aim of this study is to determine the effectiveness of internal tension sutures in term of wound healing in patients undergoing laparotomy.

Study Design: Prospective cross sectional study

Place and Duration: Department of Surgery, Lady Reading Hospital, Peshawar for duration of six months from 15th November 2020 to 15th May 2021.

Methods: One hundred and fifty patients of both genders were presented this study. Patients were aged between 20-60 years of age. Patients’ detailed demographics including age, sex and body mass were recorded after taking informed written consent. Internal tension sutures technique were used for laparotomy among patients who had intestinal obstruction, fire arm injury or stab wound to abdomen, intra-abdominal malignancies, pancreatitis. Mean post-operative pain was measured by using VAS. Outcomes in terms of healing and complications were observed at the end of study. Complete date was analyzed by SPSS 27.version.

Results: There were 115 (76.7%) patients were males and 35 (23.3%) were females. Mean age of the patients were 39.09±12.24 years with mean BMI 28.17±8.42 kg/m2. Among 150 cases, majority of the patients 120 (80%) were treated as elective and 30 (20%) were treated in emergency. Symptoms among patients were peritonitis, intestinal obstruction, trauma, mesenteric ischemia, intra-abdominal malignancy, pancreatitis and obstructive jaundice found. Effectiveness was found among 140 (93.3%) cases and only 10 (6.7%) adverse outcomes were found i.e. wound infection and incisional hernia. Patients’ satisfaction was 94.7% among all cases.

Conclusion: We concluded in this study that use of internal tension sutures technique for laparotomy is an effective and safest technique in terms of less complications and wound infections with excellent outcomes. We observed that majority of the patients were satisfied by this technique.

Keywords: Wound dehiscence, Internal tension sutures, Laparotomy, Incisional hernia