We had an inservice today about vac dressings. For those not in the know it's a great way to cut healing time. Studies have shown that it can cut healing time by a third. It also lets people have less frequent dressing changes, which reduces the pain and discomfort patients often feel with the standard twice daily wet to dry dressing.
Often times these vacs are only used on wounds that have failed to close primarily. An example would be a surgical incision that has become infected and needs to be re-opened to allow to close secondarily.
I was surprised to hear today that there is talk about using vacuum assisted closure on primary closures from the beginning--before they become infected. This would be done by placing the vac right over the suture line.
I tried to do a quick google search to see what I could find about this with no luck. Does anybody have experience with it?
Tuesday, November 13, 2007
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My mom is about to have this very procedure to close an 11" abdominal incision. She had an appendectomy followed 2 days later by surgery to deal with infection.
We expected that they would be stapling the incision before sending her home - they were letting it heal from the inside after the second surgery - but yesterday they told us her skin tissue was too thin and they were doing this vacuum procedure. I'd love more info if you have any.
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