Evidence for the benefits of negative pressure therapy in the treatment of diabetic foot in adults: a comprehensive approach to improved health

Abstract

Diabetic foot ulcers represent an increase in recent years in the cures to be carried out by nursing staff. For this reason, the new negative pressure therapy has been chosen, which involves an increase in granulation tissue, leading to complete healing in a minimum time, highlighting the few complications derived from said therapy. Objective: To demonstrate the effectiveness of negative pressure therapy in patients with diabetic foot. Methodology: A narrative review was carried out between December 2022 and November 2023 in the databases of Pubmed, Dialnet, Google Scholar, WOS, Scopus and Cochrane, following a search string, which combines keywords derived from the thesauri “Health Sciences Descriptors” (DeCS) and “Medical Subject Headings” (MeSH), being combined with the Boolean operators “NOT”, “OR” and “AND”. Results: Negative pressure therapy offers a number of significant benefits for adult patients with diabetic foot, improving wound healing, reducing the risk of serious complications and contributing to a better quality of life. It is important to highlight that the implementation of this therapy must be guided by health professionals and adapted to the specific needs of each patient. Conclusion: After comparing the different selected articles, it was determined that the application of negative pressure therapy in diabetic foot ulcers is beneficial in relation to the reduction in healing time compared to conventional wound healing dressings. The associated complications being minimal. Furthermore, treatment with this therapy turns out to be cost-effective by reducing patients' hospital stays, leading to an increase in quality of life.