C-reactive protein (CRP) serum-concentration in dogs with impaired postoperative wound healing

Objective: Aim of this study was the evaluation of the peri-operative course of the canine C-reactive protein INN serum concentration in uncomplicated and complicated wound healing. Material and methods: Based on the postoperative course of wound healing, 99 dogs were assigned to the following groups: uncomplicated wound healing (control group, n = 57), wound infection (n = 11), wound dehiscence (n = 5), seroma (n = 6), haematoma (n = 7), prolonged inflammatory condition (n = 12), and other complications (n = 1). Results: Patients with uncomplicated wound healing showed clinically a steady decrease of the initial local inflammatory reaction in the postoperative course. The CRP concentration was also characterized by an initial peak followed by a steady decline. Patients, whose wound healing was characterized by a prolonged or again increasing inflammation, nearly always displayed unchanged high CRP concentrations or a second marked increase and higher CRP concentrations in comparison to the control group. This could be proved not only for patients with wound infection or wound dehiscence. Similar increases in the CRP concentration were found in patients without unambiguous signs of wound dehiscence or wound infection (prolonged inflammatory condition). In contrast to this, patients with seroma or haematoma showed neither a marked inflammatory reaction nor an increase of the CRP-concentration in the further postoperative course. Conclusion: Serial measurement of the CRP concentration is an objective parameter for the evaluation of wound healing. Clinical relevance: Unchanged high or again increasing CRP concentrations are - under certain conditions - an indication for further diagnostic measurements and therapeutic consequences.