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The results of current studies are not conclusive on the efficacy of incisional negative-pressure wound therapy (NPWT) for the prevention of sternal wound infection (SWI) after adult cardiac surgery. A systematic review of the literature was performed through PubMed, Scopus and Google to identify studies which investigated the efficacy of NPWT to prevent SWI after adult cardiac surgery. Available data were pooled using RevMan and Meta-analyst with random effect models. Out of 191 studies retrieved from the literature, ten fulfilled the inclusion criteria and were included in this analysis. The quality of these studies was judged fair for three of them and poor for seven studies. Only one study was powered to address the efficacy of NPWT for the prevention of postoperative SWI. Pooled analysis of these studies showed that NPWT was associated with lower risk of any SWI (4.5% vs. 9.0%, RR 0.54, 95% CI 0.34–0.84, I² 48%), superficial SWI (3.8% vs. 4.4%, RR 0.63, 95% CI 0.29–1.36, I² 65%), and deep SWI (1.8% vs. 4.7%, RR 0.46, 95% CI 0.26–0.74, I² 0%), but such a difference was not statistically significant for superficial SWI. When only randomized and alternating allocated studies were included, NPWT was associated with a significantly lower risk of any SWI (3.3% vs. 16.5%, RR 0.22, 95% CI 0.08–0.62, I² 0%), superficial SWI (2.6% vs. 12.4%, RR 0.21, 95% CI 0.06–0.69, I² 0%), and deep SWI (1.2% vs. 4.8%, RR 0.17, 95% CI 0.03–0.95, I² 0%). This pooled analysis showed that NPWT may prevent postoperative SWI after adult cardiac surgery. NPWT is expected to be particularly useful in patients at risk for surgical site infection and may significantly reduce the burden of resources needed to treat such a complication. However, the methodology of the available studies was judged as poor for most of them. Further studies are needed to obtain conclusive results on the potential benefits of this preventative strategy. Full article