title: Successful treatment of an infected wound in infants by a combination of negative pressure wound therapy and arginine supplementation.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Wound dehiscence caused by surgical site infection (SSI) presents a complicated problem. Negative pressure wound therapy (NPWT) was developed to treat wound dehiscence. Nutritional treatment using arginine has also been recently shown to be effective for the treatment of pressure ulcers. Therefore, wound complications due to SSI were treated using NPWT combined with nutritional therapy with an arginine-rich supplement (ARS).
  
  
  METHODS
  Six pediatric patients with wound dehiscence due to SSI received this combined therapy.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The average age of the patients was 12.2 mo. The operations that these patients underwent included laryngotracheal separation, radical operation for spinal bifida, gastrostomy, colostomy, anorectoplasty, and tumor extirpation. A local wound infection induced wound dehiscence in all patients. Therefore, NPWT was introduced with an enteral administration of ARS. All wounds completely healed within 1 mo after the introduction of this combined therapy without any other complications from the NPWT or ARS. A follow-up study at 6 mo after this therapy was completed showed no complications associated with the wounds.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  This combination therapy using NPWT and ARS administration was effective in inducing early healing of infected wound complications after surgery.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pediatric Surgery, Reproductive and Developmental Medicine, Graduate School of Medical Sciences, Kyushu University, Kyushu, Japan. kmasu@fukuoka-u.ac.jp
authors.forename: Kouji
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Masumoto
authors.forename: Kouji
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Nagata
authors.forename: Yoichiro
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Oka
authors.forename: Hiroki
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Kai
authors.forename: Sadako
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Yamaguchi
authors.forename: Mika
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Wada
authors.forename: Tsuyoshi
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Kusuda
authors.forename: Toshiro
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Hara
authors.forename: Shin-ichi
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Hirose
authors.forename: Akinori
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Iwasaki
authors.forename: Tomoaki
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Taguchi
mesh_terms: D001120:Arginine / Q000008:administration & dosage* / Q000097:blood; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003131:Combined Modality Therapy; D019587:Dietary Supplements; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D008297:Male; D054843:Negative-Pressure Wound Therapy / Q000379:methods*; D003668:Pressure Ulcer / Q000628:therapy; D013529:Surgical Wound Dehiscence / Q000628:therapy; D016896:Treatment Outcome
chemical_list: D001120:Arginine