Sat., 10/10/09 Basic Sci./Injury Prevent./Spine, Paper #71, 11:07 am OTA-2009
Δ Negative Pressure Dressings on Primarily Closed Wounds Improve Wound Healing Parameters at Three Days in a Porcine Model
James E. Meeker, MD (7-OTA Resident Grant); Laurence Dahners, MD (n);
Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill,
Chapel Hill, North Carolina, USA
Purpose: We investigated the role of negative-pressure dressings (NPDs) in postoperative primary wound treatment and closure. To date, extensive evidence exists demonstrating the benefit of NPDs in the treatment of open wounds; our experiment tested the hypothesis that NPDs improve healing of closed (sutured) wounds.
Methods: A porcine model was used to collect data on the characteristics of closed wounds after 3 days of treatment with NPDs as compared to control dressings.
Results: In 6 pigs with a total of 56 wounds, we observed a statistically significant improvement in tensile strength (N/mm) (142% ± 65% of control; P = 0.001), energy to failure (mJ/mm) (176% ± 227% of control; P <0.04), blinded grading of clinical wound appearance, and cross-sectional area of hematoma size at 3 days.
Conclusions and Significance: Suction dressings applied to surgically closed wounds enhance the healing characteristics of porcine wounds at 3 days. We believe that primarily closed surgical wounds may benefit from treatment with NPDs. The benefit of using NPDs may be most pronounced in situations where wounds are closed under tension, involve considerable soft-tissue trauma, or may be at risk of subdermal hematoma formation.
• The FDA has not cleared this drug and/or medical device for the use described in this presentation (i.e., the drug or medical device is being discussed for an “off label” use). ◆FDA information not available at time of printing. Δ OTA Grant