Volume 24, Issue 103, May - June, 2020

Efficacy of VAC (Vacuum assisted closure) therapy versus handcrafted vacuum assisted devices in healing of chronic wounds

Anuja Vivek Pande, Darshana Tote

Department of General Surgery, JNMC Sawangi, Wardha, Maharashtra

ABSTRACT

A chronic wound is any disruption in the continuity of the body’s surface that requires a sustained time to heal, does not heal, or recurs. In other words, chronic wound is defined as wound that is not able to progress through usual phases of wound healing, in terms of sequence and periodicity. We at our tertiary care rural hospital tried a low cost NPWT using the suction machine available in the wards with some minor pressure modifications and using materials like gauze, pads and Ryle’s tube. This type of vacuum assisted closure has the potential to be used on a daily basis in hospitals with budget constraints. It was a prospective observational study conducted in AVBRH Sawangi rural hospital on 50 patients where 25 patients each were subjected to low cost handcrafted VAC and high cost VAC and wounds were assessed at the end of 5 days. On comparison there was statistically similar amount of reduction in area and volume in both techniques. Statistically similar number of ulcers were converted to healthy granulation tissue (p<0.05). Both handcrafted & VAC dressing effectively reduced area &volume of the wounds thereby reducing the duration of healing in chronic wounds. The total cost of handcrafted dressings was lower than VAC dressing thus making handcrafted dressing more cost-effective.

Keywords: chronic wound, handcrafted, VAC dressing, wound healing

Medical Science, 2020, 24(103), 1111-1121

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