Feyissa GD. Serial Bogota bag tightening: A pragmatic advance in open abdomen management for resource-limited settings. World J Gastrointest Pharmacol Ther 2026; 17(3): 120768 [DOI: 10.4292/wjgpt.120768]
Corresponding Author of This Article
Gemechu Dereje Feyissa, Assistant Professor, Department of Public Health, Faculty of Health Sciences, Rift Valley University, Hangatu District, Dabe Sub-City, Adama 1715, Oromīa, Ethiopia. gemechudereje80@gmail.com
Research Domain of This Article
Gastroenterology & Hepatology
Article-Type of This Article
editorial
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This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
World Journal of Gastrointestinal Pharmacology and Therapeutics
ISSN
2150-5349
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Baishideng Publishing Group Inc, 7041 Koll Center Parkway, Suite 160, Pleasanton, CA 94566, USA
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Feyissa GD. Serial Bogota bag tightening: A pragmatic advance in open abdomen management for resource-limited settings. World J Gastrointest Pharmacol Ther 2026; 17(3): 120768 [DOI: 10.4292/wjgpt.120768]
World J Gastrointest Pharmacol Ther. Sep 5, 2026; 17(3): 120768 Published online Sep 5, 2026. doi: 10.4292/wjgpt.120768
Serial Bogota bag tightening: A pragmatic advance in open abdomen management for resource-limited settings
Gemechu Dereje Feyissa
Gemechu Dereje Feyissa, Department of Public Health, Faculty of Health Sciences, Rift Valley University, Adama 1715, Oromīa, Ethiopia
Author contributions: Feyissa GD conceptualized the editorial, drafted and revised the manuscript, and approved the final version.
AI contribution statement: I used AI based language polishing and grammar checking tools (e.g., Grammarly) to assist in improving the clarity, fluency, and grammar of the manuscript. No AI tool was used for statistical or data analysis, interpretation of results, or intellectual content generation. All figures and tables were generated by the authors using standard statistical and graphic software (e.g., R, GraphPad Prism, Microsoft Excel); no image was produced by AI tools.
Conflict-of-interest statement: All the authors report no relevant conflicts of interest for this article.
Corresponding author: Gemechu Dereje Feyissa, Assistant Professor, Department of Public Health, Faculty of Health Sciences, Rift Valley University, Hangatu District, Dabe Sub-City, Adama 1715, Oromīa, Ethiopia. gemechudereje80@gmail.com
Received: March 9, 2026 Revised: March 19, 2026 Accepted: May 29, 2026 Published online: September 5, 2026 Processing time: 174 Days and 0.9 Hours
Abstract
Open abdomen management poses unique challenges in resource-limited settings, where costly dynamic fascial traction techniques remain inaccessible. Balhara et al's prospective randomized trial published on the World J Gastrointest Pharmacol Ther introduces serial Bogota bag tightening, a bedside, negligible-cost method using urine bags and sutures, as an effective dynamic fascial traction alternative, achieving skin-to-skin distance ≤ 5 cm in 9.94 days vs 13 days in controls (P = 0.0003) and shortening hospital stays without added morbidity. This editorial appraises the study’s strengths, contextualizes it against negative pressure wound therapy/mesh systems, and advocates its scalability for low- and middle-income countries, urging multicenter validation of long-term fascial closure.
Core Tip: Balhara et al pioneer randomized, low-cost dynamic fascial traction via serial Bogota bag tightening, accelerating skin-to-skin closure (9.94 days vs 13 days) and hospital stays in septic open abdomen, bedside feasible, universally accessible, and ideal for low- and middle-income countries overburdened by sepsis, bridging the gap until advanced therapies proliferate.
