Negative-pressure wound therapy – does it lower the risk of complications with closed wounds following breast surgery?

ABSTRACT

Introduction: Breast surgery complications are important not only due to their morbidity and psychological impact, but also the delays that can occur for adjuvant treatment or the loss of implants in severe cases. There is growing evidence that negative pressure dressing on closed wounds can reduce the complications following surgery. Methods: This study aimed to assess whether negative-pressure dressings reduced complications in patients undergoing bilateral reduction mammoplasty with randomization of a side to negative pressure and standard care, fixation strips, on the contralateral side. This allowed patients to act as their own controls. Results: This study found a significant reduction in the rate of wound complications but used a wide definition for what constituted a wound complication. Discussion: This finding is mirrored in existing work with studies showing that negative-pressure therapy is a cost-effective intervention. Further work is required to validate this finding and targeting those at highest risk may be preferential.

KEYWORDS:

• Negative Pressure
• pico
• wound therapy
• wound complications
• breast surgery

Article highlights

• Wound complications with breast reconstructive surgery are common and are associated with treatment delays and additional cost.

• Tanaydin et al. have shown a significant reduction in complications using negative-pressure dressings.

• There is a lack of defined end-point agreement between studies with high variation in reported complication rates.

• Further study is needed to determine long-term benefits and cost-effectiveness for negative pressure dressing use on closed wounds in breast surgery.

Declaration of interest

The authors have no relevant affiliations or financial involvement with any organization or entity with a financial interest in or financial conflict with the subject matter or materials discussed in the manuscript. This includes employment, consultancies, honoraria, stock ownership or options, expert testimony, grants or patents received or pending, or royalties.

Reviewer Disclosures

Peer reviewers on this manuscript have no relevant financial or other relationships to disclose.

Additional information

Funding

This paper was not funded.