Our experience with a "homemade" vacuum-assisted closure system.
BACKGROUND
Negative-pressure therapy for the closure of wounds, a technique to accelerate secondary wound healing, is clinically available as the V.A.C. system (KCI Inc, San Antonio, TX, U.S.A.). Budgetary considerations in our institution precluded widespread use of the expensive V.A.C. system in routine cases.


OBJECTIVE
To develop a less expensive comparably effective dressing, based on the same principles.


METHODS
We used our "homemade" system to treat 15 patients with appropriate complex wounds. Their hospital charts were reviewed and assessed retrospectively. Cost analysis was performed comparing our dressing with the V.A.C. system.


RESULTS
Our homemade negative-pressure wound treatment system obtained results similar to what one could expect with the V.A.C. system in all parameters. Complications encountered were few and minor. Cost per day using our negative-pressure system for a 10 cm2 wound is about U.S. $1, as compared to U.S. $22, utilizing the V.A.C. system.


CONCLUSIONS
Our homemade negative-pressure system proved to be a good cost-effective treatment for wound closure in hospitalized patients, yielding results comparable to those of the more expensive V.A.C. system.
Department of Plastic Surgery, Assaf Harofeh Medical Center, Zerifin, Israel.
Avshalom
A
Shalom
Hadad
H
Eran
Melvyn
M
Westreich
Tal
T
Friedman
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D001458:Bandages / Q000191:economics; D003365:Costs and Cost Analysis; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D054843:Negative-Pressure Wound Therapy / Q000191:economics / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000379:methods*; D012883:Skin Ulcer / Q000191:economics / Q000628:therapy; D014945:Wound Healing