Vacuum-Assisted Closure: A New Method for Wound Control and Treatment: Clinical Experience
Despite numerous advances, chronic and other difficult-to-manage wounds continue to be a treatment challenge. Presented is a new subatmospheric pressure technique: vacuum assisted closure (The V.A.C.). The V.A.C. technique entails placing an open-cell foam dressing into the wound cavity and applying a controlled subatmospheric pressure (125 mm Hg below ambient pressure). Three hundred wounds were treated: 175 chronic wounds, 94 subacute wounds, and 31 acute wounds. Two hundred ninety-six wounds responded favorably to subatmospheric pressure treatment, with an increased rate of granulation tissue formation. Wounds were treated until completely closed, were covered with a split-thickness skin graft, or a flap was rotated into the healthy, granulating wound bed. The technique removes chronic edema, leading to increased localized blood flow, and the applied forces result in the enhanced formation of granulation tissue. Vacuum-assisted closure is an extremely efficacious modality for treating chronic and difficult wounds.
Morykwas MJ, Argenta LC, Shelton-Brown EL, McGuirt W. Vacuum-Assisted Closure: a new method for wound control and treatment: animal studies and basic foundation. Ann Plastic Surgery. Vol 38;(6) 553-562, June 1997.
Department of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, Wake Forest University School of Medicine, Medical Center Boulevard, Winston-Salem, North Carolina, 27157.