Negative pressure wound therapy in surgical practice: an Institutional experience from a tertiary centre of North India

Introduction: Negative pressure wound therapy (NPWT) has been suggested as a gold standard for managing complex wounds and to reduce the time of healing and overall morbidity and mortality of the patient.Aim: We have done a retrospective study to observe the outcome in patients managed with negative pressure wound therapy for varied etiologies.Methods: Patients with complicated wounds including lower limb wounds post-debridement, upper limb wounds post-debridement, postoperative abdominal wound dehiscence, abdominal and chest abscess wounds post-debridement and amputation stumps, managed with negative pressure wound therapy were studied on the basis of wound outcome, total hospital stay, days of NPWT application and pressure and mode of NPWT.Results: A total of 42 patients with complicated wounds were included in the study. Mean hospital stay was 16.2 days and mean NPWT application time was 8.29 days with NPWT being applied on average for 3.91 days post-procedure like debridement or amputation or after wound dehiscence in which debridement was not done. As many as 41.5% of wounds were closed with suturing, 48.8% healed by secondary intention and 9.8% were covered with split-thickness skin grafts. A significant observation was made for lower pressure being used for abdominal wound dehiscence (75 mmHg) compared to other wounds on limbs (mean 98.33 mmHg) (P < 0.001). Re-debridement after the 1st cycle of NPWT was needed in 40% of wounds managed with intermittent mode compared to 6.2% in continuous mode (P = 0.028).Conclusion: NPWT can reduce and manage wound complications with improvement in the quality of life of patients when used at an appropriate time with knowledge of its mechanism and functionality.