title: Negative pressure therapy on primarily closed wounds improves wound healing parameters at 3 days in a porcine model.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  We investigated the role of negative pressure therapy (NPT) in postoperative primary wound treatment and closure. To date, extensive evidence exists demonstrating the benefit of negative pressure dressings in the treatment of open wounds; our experiment tested the hypothesis that negative pressure dressings improve healing of closed (sutured) wounds.
  
  
  METHODS
  A porcine model was used to collect data on the characteristics of closed wounds after 3 days of treatment with NPTs as compared with control dressings.
  
  
  RESULTS
  In six pigs with a total of 56 wounds, load to failure (N/mm) in controls was 0.348 (standard deviation [SD] 0.109) versus NPT at 0.470 (SD, 0.194) with a P value of 0.001; energy to failure (mJ/mm) in controls was 0.85 (SD, 0.378) versus NPT at 1.128 (SD, 0.638) with a P value of 0.035. Blinded grading of clinical wound appearance and cross-sectional hematoma size were also improved at 72 hours.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  NPT dressings applied to surgically closed wounds enhance the healing characteristics of porcine wounds at 3 days.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  We have observed that primarily closed surgical wounds may benefit from treatment with NPT. The benefit of using NPTs may be most pronounced in situations in which wounds are closed under tension, involve considerable soft tissue trauma, or may be at risk of subdermal hematoma formation.
authors.affiliation: Department of Orthopaedics, University of North Carolina School of Medicine, Chapel Hill, NC 37599-7055, USA. jmeeker@unch.unc.edu
authors.forename: James
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Meeker
authors.forename: Paul
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Weinhold
authors.forename: Laurence
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Dahners
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D004195:Disease Models, Animal; D005260:Female; D054843:Negative-Pressure Wound Therapy / Q000379:methods*; D017695:Soft Tissue Injuries / Q000628:therapy; D013552:Swine; D016896:Treatment Outcome; D014945:Wound Healing