Negative Pressure Wound Therapy: A Journey made Easy

Abstract

Background: Large degloving wounds and crushed injuries are the common finding in trauma victims. The treatment includes prolonged period of hospitalization and dressing. The negative pressure wound therapy is the modality which is shown to reduce not only the priosd of hospitalization but also reduces the burden on healthcare system by decreasing the need of frequent dressing and early preparation of wound bed.
Aims : To assess the efficacy of negative pressure wound therapy as compared to conventional wound dressings for wound bed preparation in acute traumatic wounds in following aspects: Rate of Granulation tissue Formation.
Methods: A total of 100 patients with traumatic wounds who were admitted in department of generalsurgery, Trauma Centre of Institute of Medical Science BHU Varanasi were included in the study.
Results: 100 patients, a total of 80 (80%) patients were male and 20 (20%) patients were female with male to female ratio of 4:1 in entire study population. 50 patients received treatment with NPWT and 50 patients were treated with conventional dressings. The mean age of patients treated with NPWT was 37.30–6.81 years while in conventional dressing group it was 36.72–7.20 years.
Conclusion: The study outcome studied & was assessed in terms of Rate of Granulation tissue Formation and number of days required before grafting. This showed that NPWT is a much better modality of treatment than conventional dressing in traumatic wounds.