Is Negative Pressure Wound Therapy an Effective Method for Vascular Site Infection?
Objectives: Wound infection developing after vascular surgery is generally a long-term and difficult process to manage. This study examined the effective, currently preferred, non-pharmacological technique of negative pressure wound therapy for this condition.
Methods: The outcomes of negative pressure therapy applied to treat wound infections that developed after vascular surgery were retrospectively examined. Patients were divided into 2 groups (Szilagyi classification II and III) according to surgical site infection level. Results: In all, 26 patients were included in the evaluation. Mean patient age was 68.1±6.9 years, and distribution of gender was male/female: 18/8. The most common co-existing disease was diabetes mellitus (65%) and the most frequent anatomical application region was inguinal (65.5%). The mean length of treatment was 26.8±14 days. Blood transfusion was performed for 12 (46.1%) patients. Of all the patients, 57.7% had a Szilagyi II surgical site infection and 42.3% had Szilagyi III. Graft change was observed more in the Szilagyi III group (n=11) than in the Szilagyi II group (n=0) (p=0.01). The length of hospital stay was longer for those classified as Szilagyi III (27±10 days) than those classified as Szilagyi II (20±8 days) (p=0.03).
Conclusion: Although it takes a long time, it was concluded that negative pressure wound therapy is a safe and effective alternative treatment for surgical site infections, including vascular graft infection, because of the low complication rate.
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