Effect of ultrasonic debridement for the treatment of diabetic foot ulcers: a meta-analysis

Abstract

Objective To evaluate the effect of ultrasonic debridement for treating diabetic foot ulcers(DFU). Methods Randomized controlled trials, quasi-experimental studies and cohort studies of ultrasonic debridement for DFU were searched from the Cochrane Library, PubMed, EMbase, CBM, VIP and CNKI.Two authors screened, evaluated and extracted research articles, and conducted meta-analysis on studies that met the quality standards. Results A total of six studies including 624 patients were included.Of them, four studies included the outcome on the average wound healing time, and meta-analysis showed that, compared with traditional debridement, ultrasonic debridement could shorten the average healing time for wounds[weighted mean differences(WMD)=-20.78, 95%CI: -35.72-5.85, P=0.006]. Three studies included the outcome on the average wound healing rate, and meta-analysis showed that ultrasonic debridement had a higher average wound healing rate than traditional debridement(WMD=22.53, 95%CI: 19.19~25.87, P<0.001). Two studies included the outcome on the average wound healing area, and meta-analysis showed no significant difference between ultrasonic debridement and traditional debridement(WMD=-5.82, 95%CI: -18.43~6.80, P=0.370). Conclusions Ultrasonic debridement is superior to traditional debridement in treating diabetic foot ulcers. Key words: Diabetic foot; Debridement; Meta-analysis