Can vacuum assisted wound management enhance graft acceptance?

Abstract

Vacuum-assisted wound closure (VAC), a novel innovation in wound-care, has been proven to promote wound healing in human medicine and was recently also described for the treatment of a neck wound in a horse. It ensures adequate wound drainage, a moist woundhealing environment, increased rate of granulation tissue formation, improved blood flow and reduced bacterial count. The results of the application of VAC as a supportive therapy in skin grafting are encouraging in human patients with take rates of grafts above 90%. The question is whether these results can also be obtained in horses. This article reports the clinical application of VAC in combination with the Meek micrografting method in 2 equine patients. The VAC provided adequate wound drainage, good fixation of the graft to the recipient site, limited shear forces and allowed graft acceptance of at least 75% in both patients. Although no control studies were conducted, the clinical results suggest that vacuum-assisted closure stimulates the acceptance of split thickness grafts and accelerates wound healing and may become an essential part of wound treatment in the future.