A Clinical Study of Management of Wounds Using Vacuum Assisted Dressings in Tirunelveli Medical College Hospital

Management of wounds is always a challenging issue. Delayed healing of wounds is a major problem in the community, besides causing morbidity and disability in the patient, is a burden on our health resources. Therefore, is a need for application of newer and advanced modalities in management of wounds. Vacuum-assisted closure uses negative pressure to assist wound healing and has a positive impact on wound healing by enhancing granulation tissue formation and wound closure, thus providing a modern wound care system for the poor at an affordable cost. The present interventional study involved 50 cases of wounds that fulfilled the inclusion criteria. VAC dressing was done in wounds occurring in a variety of locations like foot 29 (58 %), leg 18 (36 %), sole 2 (4 %) and forearm 1 (2 %). Most common organism cultured both from case and control population was Staphylococcus aureus 11 (44 %).90 % of non-sterile pre-vac culture turned sterile after VAC. The hospital stay was found to be only 21days for patients with VAC dressing, when compared 28 days in control group. Patients with VAC dressing have more Split Skin Graft before discharge and less rate of amputation when compared to the control group. In short, VAC dressing decreases Hospital stay. VAC dressing improves pus culture sensitivity. VAC dressing improves outcome, more SSG. From our study, it can be concluded that VAC is a promising new technology in the field of wound healing with multiple applications in a variety of wounds. Wherever feasible, VAC therapy should be the modality of choice in management of wounds.