Negative Pressure Wound Therapy in Surgical Wounds - A Single Centre Experience

Author(s): Mohammad Imtiaz, Chijioke Ikechi, A K Shrestha, Ankur Shah

Background: Negative pressure wound therapy (NPWT) is a therapeutic technique using suction pump to promote healing of wound. It can be used in a variety of surgical wounds. The aim of the study was to evaluate the outcome of NPWT in different types surgical wounds in a district general hospital (DGH)with a view to identify the complete healing rate of surgical wound and complication rate of using this technique.

Method: A retrospective review on prospectively-collected data of 102 patients was conducted from January 2018 to September 2019. Demographic data, diagnosis, comorbidities, indications for the application of NPWT, duration of therapy were recorded. Outcome included rate of complete healing and complications. The exclusion criteria were patients from other non-general surgical specialties and patients with bed sores.

Result: 102 patients (M: F 40:62) with a median age of 61 (30-96) years were included in the study. Median Body Mass Index (BMI) of patients was 27(19.2-44). 26.4%, 63% and 11.8% had a BMI less than 25, between 25-35 and above 35 respectively. The NPWT application was mostly (71.5% n= 73) used for anterior abdominal. Wound dimensions revealed a median length of 8 cm (range 3-20) and median width of 5cm (range 1-31). 98(96.1%) patients had complete healing and four patients (3.9%) had recorded complications.

Conclusion: From our experience, the use of NPWT achieved excellent complete healing rate with a very low complication rate. We can conclude that NPWT is a very useful, safe and effective technique to manage surgical wounds.

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