The Role of Negative Pressure Wound Therapy With Reticulated Open Cell Foam in the Treatment of War Wounds

Abstract

The treatment of war wounds poses many unique challenges to all healthcare providers (surgeons, flight medics, nurses, etc.), whether they are located at the far forward trauma hospitals located in or near areas of conflict, at regional hospitals such as Landstuhl Medical Center in Germany, or the larger military hospitals in the United States. These complex wounds often involve massive loss of soft tissue and bone, are contaminated, and are unlike most injuries seen at civilian hospitals. Treatment guidelines, or doctrine, are the result of lessons learned in conflicts over the past few centuries dating back to early 19th century Europe through the Vietnam and recent Persian Gulf war. Advances in surgical and medical treatment have resulted from the complex challenges presented to the war trauma surgeon. More than 1 million patients have been treated for chronic pressure ulcers, abdominal wounds, diabetic ulcers, and acute civilian trauma wounds with negative pressure wound therapy with reticulated open cell foam (NPWT/ROCF) as delivered by V.A.C.(R) Therapy (KCI, San Antonio, TX) for over the past decade. However, the use of NPWT/ROCF for the care of war wounds at battlefield trauma hospitals and/or in the aeromedical evacuation transport system aboard aircraft is a new application of this wound treatment not yet accepted as doctrine. Investigational studies are ongoing to study the safety and efficacy of the treatment of battlefield wounds with NPWT/ROCF both for those national citizens treated at the trauma hospitals in Iraq and Afghanistan and for those wounded American and coalition patients who are transported through the aeromedical transport system to medical centers in the United States.