Impact of relationship between the stoma site and the primary incision on occurrence of laparotomy wound infection in contaminated or dirty wound operations in neonates

Background: In neonatal surgical patients requiring an enterostomy, there is no definitive recommendation regarding the ideal enterostomy location: at the edge of the primary incision or at a different incision. Methods: We retrospectively reviewed 2005–2017 administration data in our institution. All neonatal patients who underwent contaminated or dirty wound laparotomy and enterostomy construction were evaluated regarding the enterostomy location, occurrence of postoperative incisional surgical-site infection (SSI) at the primary incision, and stoma-related complications. Results: Patients were divided into two groups based on stoma location: at the primary incision (the same incision group: SI group, n = 16) or at another incision (different incision group: DI group, n = 23). We performed 2 jejunostomies, 13 ileostomies, and 1 colostomy in the SI group, and 4 jejunostomies, 18 ileostomies, and 1 colostomy in the DI group. One of 16 patients (6.3%) in the SI group and 2/23 patients (8.7%) in the DI group experienced superficial incisional SSI, with comparable SSI incidence between groups (p = 0.78). Every SSI did not result in stoma-related complications. Conclusions: Although the enterostomy location did not influence the incidence of laparotomy wound infection in this study, prospective studies are mandatory to fully assess the safety of enterostomy construction at the edge of the primary incision.