Negative Pressure Wound Therapy: A Pilot Study

Abstract

Introduction: Impaired wound healing has a significant socio- economic impact. The introduction of Vacuum Assisted Closure (VAC) has been one of the major breakthroughs in the management of nonhealing wounds owing to its property of granulation tissue formation via effects related to local sub atmospheric pressure and fluid drainage. Aim: To study the efficacy of Negative Pressure Wound Therapy (NPWT) in wound healing. Materials and Methods: A pilot study was performed on 50 patients out of which 41 were males 82% and 9 were females (18%) with chronic non healing wounds of different aetiologies between the age of 15-70 years. Eligible patients were treated with NPWT at two days interval for an average of two dressings. Patients were evaluated after two dressings for appearance of granulation tissue, reduction in wound size and decrease of bacterial load in the wound. Paired t-test and Chi-square tests were used. The p<0.05 was considered significant. Results: The use of NPWT in different types of open wounds, pressure sores, postoperative wounds resulted in reduction of wound size (p-value=0.001), infection rate (p-value=0.001) within a week after two dressings to finally be closed with split skin grafting or secondary suturing. Conclusion: NPWT dressing is a safe, reliable intervention for patients with chronic wounds associated with impaired wound healing, particularly with wounds larger in surface area which requires closure by split skin grafting or musculocutaneous flaps.