Michele Maruccia1,2, Maria Giuseppina Onesti2, Valentina Sorvillo2, Antonio Albano2, Luca Andrea Dessy2, Bruno Carlesimo2, Mauro Tarallo2, Marco Marcasciano2, Giuseppe Giudice1, Emanuele Cigna2, Diego Ribuffo2
1Emergency and Organ Transplantation Department, University of Bari “Aldo Moro”, Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery and Burns Unit, Piazza Giulio Cesare 11, 70124 Bari, Italy
2“Valdoni” Surgery Department, Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery Unit, “Sapienza” University of Rome, Viale del Policlinico 155, 00161 Roma, Italy
Tóm tắt
Extensive skin defect represents a real problem and major challenge in plastic and reconstructive surgery. On one hand, skin grafts offer a practical method to deal with skin defects despite their unsuitability for several complicated wounds. On the other hand, negative pressure wound therapy (NPWT), applied before skin grafting, promotes granulation tissue growth. The aim of the study is to evaluate the improvement in wound healing given by the merger of these two different approaches. We treated 23 patients for large wounds of multiple factors. Of these, 15 were treated with the application of V.A.C.® Therapy (KCI Medical S.r.l., Milan, Italy), in combination with skin grafts after a prior unsuccessful treatment of 4 weeks with mesh skin grafts and dressings. Another 8 were treated with only mesh skin graft. Pain reduction and wound area reduction were found statistically significant (p<0.0009,p<0.0001). Infection was resolved in almost all patients. According to our study, the use of the negative pressure wound therapy over mesh skin grafts is significantly effective especially in wounds resistant to conventional therapies, thereby improving the rate of skin graft take.
