Is vacuum assisted closure dressing better than conventional management of diabetic wounds?

Abstract

Background: Foot ulcers are a major cause of hospitalization in patients with Diabetes Mellitus (DM) which increases hospital stay because of multiple surgical procedures, prolonged length of stay. The objectives of this study were to test the conventional therapy for diabetic wounds with respect to time and wound healing, to compare the outcomes of the two methods after a stipulated period and to prove the efficacy of one method over the other by appropriate statistical methods at the end of data collection.Methods: A prospective randomized hospital based observational study of 47 patients was conducted at the Hospital of D. Y. Patil University School of Medicine, Nerul, Navi Mumbai, Maharashtra, India for a period of 24 months (June 2014 to June 2016). All these 47 patients were studied, and the data was statistically evaluated to determine the efficacy of vacuum assisted closure in healing of diabetic wounds and to compare it with conventional method of treatment of diabetic wounds. The patients were divided into 2 groups, Group ‘A’ which consisted of 22 who received Vacuum Therapy (VAC), Group ‘B’ which consisted of 25 and received conventional dressing.Results: The patients on VAC therapy had early appearance of granulation tissue as compared to patients treated by Conventional dressing (90.9% Vs 76% at the end of one week. All patients developed granulation tissue by the end of 2 weeks.Conclusions: We thus conclude that VAC appears to be superior compared to conventional dressings in the treatment of diabetic foot ulcers in terms of early appearance of granulation tissue and decrease in wound depth.