Davey, Matthew GDonlon, Noel EWalsh, Stewart RDonohoe, Claire L2025-06-252025-06-252024-08-23Davey, M. G., Donlon, N. E., Walsh, S. R., Donohoe, C. L., & PROPEL-2 Trial Collaborators (2024). Prophylactic negative pressure wound therapy (NPWT) in laparotomy wounds (PROPEL-2): protocol for a randomized clinical trial. BJS open, 8(4), zrae081. https://doi.org/10.1093/bjsopen/zrae0813917816810.1093/bjsopen/zrae081http://hdl.handle.net/10147/645746A proportion of patients undergoing midline laparotomy will develop surgical site infections after surgery. These complications place considerable financial burden on healthcare economies and have negative implications for patient health and quality of life. The prophylactic application of negative pressure wound therapy devices has been mooted as a pragmatic strategy to reduce surgical site infections. Nevertheless, further availability of multicentre randomized clinical trial data evaluating the prophylactic use of negative pressure wound therapy following midline laparotomy is warranted to definitely provide consensus in relation to these closure methods, while also deciphering potential differences among subgroups. The aim of this study is to determine whether prophylactic negative pressure wound therapy reduces postoperative wound complications in patients undergoing midline laparotomy.en© The Author(s) 2024. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of BJS Foundation Ltd.Attribution 4.0 Internationalhttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/negative pressure wound therapy (NPWT)laparotomy woundsmidline laparotomyPROPEL-2Article2474-9842BJS openPMC11342967