**5. Conclusions**

This critical review provides an overview of the available evidence on the role of TCS in preventing SSI in patients undergoing abdominal surgery, and it reports the economic impact of adopting TCS into clinical practice. The results did not completely rule out and solve the conflicting results in the literature on the clinical benefit of TCS on the prevention of wound infection. However, the economic cost model that was used in this study found that the use of TCS results in significant and robust cost saving from the perspective of an Italian hospital that performs abdominal operations. The results might be transferred to many other di fferent hypothetical settings. Triclosan antimicrobial surgical sutures should be considered for wound closure as a cost-saving measure to prevent SSIs.

**Author Contributions:** Conceptualization, A.P., T.G., V.P., L.G., G.A.T., F.C. and M.C.; methodology, A.P., T.G., L.G., V.P., G.A.T., F.C. and M.C.; software, A.P., T.G.; validation, A.P., T.G., V.P., L.G., G.A.T., F.C. and M.C.; formal analysis, A.P., T.G., V.P. and L.G.; writing, A.P., T.G., V.P., L.G., G.A.T., F.C. and M.C.; visualization, T.G.; supervision, G.A.T. and L.G. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.

**Funding:** Johnson and Johnson funded medical writing services for this research. The authors received no financial support for the research, authorship, and publication of this article.

**Acknowledgments:** We thank James Woolnough and Roderick Walker (Mtech) for medical writing support.

**Conflicts of Interest:** Alessandra Piemontese, Giovanni Tommaselli, Thibaut Galvain and Vito Parago all declare to be employees of Johnson & Johnson.
