Negative Pressure Wound Therapy for Burn Wounds

<p> Negative pressure wound therapy (NPWT) is now widely used for the purposes of wound bed preparation (WBP) in wound management. Burns deeper than DDB are usually treated with skin grafting. NPWT it is not covered by national insurance in Japan; however, it has many advantages as a skin graft fixation method. Herein, we investigate cases using NPWT for burns at our hospital and report its usefulness.<br> Twenty-nine patients were divided into the following four groups and compared:<br> 1. WBP + Graft group (seven cases) using NPWT for both WBP and skin graft fixation<br> 2. WBP preservation group (four cases) with conservative epithelialization after only WBP with NPWT<br> 3. WBP + conventional method group (nine cases) where skin graft fixation was performed by a conventional method after WBP by NPWT<br> 4. Graft group (nine patients) who had a good graft bed and underwent NPWT only for skin graft fixation<br> The reasons for performing WBP with NPWT were edematous granulation in eight cases and tendon/bone exposure in 12 cases. The average engraftment rate for skin graft fixation with NPWT was 95.6%.<br> Previous studies have reported that NPWT provides good WBP for general wounds and that it can also be used as a fixation method for skin grafts. In addition, it is possible to easily fix special parts, such as hands, that require experience with conventional methods for fixing skin grafts. Improvement of QOL can be expected through rehabilitation from the early postoperative period. Our findings suggest that NPWT is a useful treatment option for burns in the elderly. Its use is expected to increase along with the increase in the elderly population.</p>