Evaluation of the Healing Progress of Pressure Ulcers Treated with Cathodal High-Voltage Monophasic Pulsed Current: Results of a Prospective, Double-blind, Randomized Clinical Trial

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the effectiveness of high-voltage monophasic pulsed current (HVMPC) as an adjunct to a standard wound care for the treatment of Stage II and III pressure ulcers (PrUs). DESIGN: Prospective, randomized, double-blind, controlled clinical study. SETTING: Two nursing and care centers. PATIENTS: Patients with PrUs that did not respond to previous treatment for at least 4 weeks were randomly assigned to the electrical stimulation (ES) group (25 patients; mean age of 79.92 T 8.50 years; mean wound surface area [WSA] of 10.58 T 10.57 cm 2) or to the control group (24 patients; mean age of 76.33 T 12.74 years; mean WSA of 9.71 T 6.70 cm 2). INTERVENTIONS: Both the ES and control groups received standard wound care and respectively, cathodal HVMPC (154 microseconds; 100 pulses per second; 0.24 A; 250 K/s) applied continuously for 50 minutes once a day, 5 times a week, or sham HVMPC. MAIN OUTCOME: Percentage area reduction over 6 weeks of intervention. MAIN RESULTS: In the ES group, there was a statistically significant decrease in WSA after 1 week of treatment (35% T 30.5%) compared with 17.07% T 34.13% in the control group (P =.032). After treatment, at week 6, percentage area reduction in the ES group was 80.31% T 29.02% versus 54.65% T 42.65% in the control group (P=.046). CONCLUSIONS: Cathodal HVMPC reduces the WSA of Stage II and III PrUs. The results are consistent with the results of other researchers who used HVMPC to treat PrUs.