Custom made vacuum assisted dressings for wounds in department of general surgery at a tertiary care centre in U.P, India

Abstract

Background: The initial management of open wounds is copious irrigation and thorough debridement, which can cause significant tissue defects. Definitive wound cover can only be planned once the wound is healthy and patient is stable. Till then it requires a temporary closure to prevent the exposed structures from desiccation and bacterial contamination. Commercially available VAC is an effective but expensive therapy in such a case. Custom made VAC is a cheaper alternative. Material and Method: 44 patients attending OPDs and IPD in the department of general surgery at a tertiary care hospital between January 2021 to December 2022. It was a prospective randomized controlled longitudinal study. Study was conducted after approval from Internal Ethics Committee within time period of 12 months. Results: There were a total of 44 patients of which the majority of the patients were in the age group of 61-70 years followed by 18-30 years. There were more males (42) than females (2). Class 4 wounds were the major type of wound as seen consisting of 26 patients followed by class 3 wounds in 18 patients. The size of wound varied with majority being in size of 11-5 0cm2. Conclusions: This study gives a clearer picture showing that smaller wounds can be effectively closed primarily with VAC dressing but larger wounds require secondary treatment modalities.