Negative pressure wound therapy with instillation: a pilot study describing a new method for treating infected wounds

• Published in: International wound journal 2008-06, Vol.5 (3), p.399-413
• Main Authors: Gabriel, Allen, Shores, Jaimie, Heinrich, Cherrie, Baqai, Waheed, Kalina, Sharon, Sogioka, Norman, Gupta, Subhas
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Adult; Aged; Aged, 80 and over; Analysis of Variance; Bacterial Infections - microbiology; Bacterial Infections - pathology; Bacterial Infections - therapy; Clinical Evaluation; Cost Savings; Debridement - methods; Humans; Instillation; Instillation, Drug; Kaplan-Meier Estimate; Male; Middle Aged; Necrosis; Negative pressure wound therapy; Negative-Pressure Wound Therapy - economics; Negative-Pressure Wound Therapy - methods; Pilot Projects; Prospective Studies; Regression Analysis; Silver nitrate; Silver Nitrate - therapeutic use; Skin Care - economics; Skin Care - methods; Statistics, Nonparametric; Therapeutic Irrigation - economics; Therapeutic Irrigation - methods; Time Factors; Treatment Outcome; Vacuum-assisted closure therapy; Wound Healing; Wound Infection - microbiology; Wound Infection - pathology; Wound Infection - therapy; Wound-care infection
• ISSN: 1742-4801; 1742-481X
• DOI: 10.1111/j.1742-481X.2007.00423.x

This data review reports the results of 15 patients who were treated with Vacuum‐Assisted Closure® (VAC) negative pressure therapy system in addition to the timed, intermittent delivery of an instilled topical solution for management of their complex, infected wounds. Prospective data for 15 patients treated with negative pressure wound therapy (NPWT)‐instillation was recorded and analysed. Primary endpoints were compared to a retrospective control group of 15 patients treated with our institution‘s standard moist wound‐care therapy. Culture‐specific systemic antibiotics were prescribed as per specific patient need in both groups. All data were checked for normality of distribution and equality of variance and appropriate parametric and non parametric analyses were conducted. Compared with the standard moist wound‐care therapy control group, patients in the NPWT‐instillation group required fewer days of treatment (36·5 ± 13·1 versus 9·9 ± 4·3 days, P < 0·001), cleared of clinical infection earlier (25·9 ± 6·6 versus 6·0 ± 1·5 days, P < 0·001), had wounds close earlier (29·6 ± 6·5 versus 13·2 ± 6·8 days, P < 0·001) and had fewer in‐hospital stay days (39·2 ± 12·1 versus 14·7 ± 9·2 days, P < 0·001). In this pilot study, NPWT instillation showed a significant decrease in the mean time to bioburden reduction, wound closure and hospital discharge compared with traditional wet‐to‐moist wound care. Outcomes from this study analysis suggest that the use of NPWT instillation may reduce cost and decrease inpatient care requirements for these complex, infected wounds.