The safety and efficacy of using negative pressure incisional wound VACs in pediatric and neonatal patients
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Read the article on jpedsurg.org ↗Article · Dec 2019 · 1 min read
In brief
In brief
Retrospective study of 32 pediatric and neonatal patients demonstrates that negative pressure incisional wound VAC dressings can be safely applied after surgery, with a trend toward reduced surgical site infections (3.1% vs 10.8% in controls). Findings support the need for larger prospective trials to confirm efficacy in pediatric populations.
Written by the GCMD Library team from the article.
Background
Surgical site infection (SSI) rates are an important surgical quality metric. Decreased SSI rates have been demonstrated using negative pressure incisional wound vac device (NPIWV) dressings in adults but have not been studied in children.
Materials and methods
A retrospective review of patients treated with NPIWV at our institution between February 2016 and February 2018 was performed. NPIWV dressings were applied by previously described techniques. Using the same CPT codes from our study patients, we queried the National Surgical Quality Improvement Program-Pediatric (NSQIP-P) data between January 2014 and January 2016 to identify preimplementation controls (PIC). NPIWV patients were compared to historical controls to assess safety and efficacy of SSI prevention.
Results
There were 32 patients managed with NPIWV, and 65 patients in the PIC group. There were no NPIWV-associated complications. There was a trend toward reduced incidence of SSI in NPIWV patients, with 1 SSI in 32 cases (3.1%) versus 7 SSIs in the 65 historical control patients (10.8%) (p = 0.22).
Conclusions
Our study shows that NPIWV dressings can be used safely in pediatric and neonatal patients undergoing surgery, with a trend toward decreased SSI rates. These findings should be confirmed in a larger, prospective trial.
Type of study
Retrospective comparative study.
Level of evidence
Level III.