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Evidence summaries

Negative Pressure Wound Therapy (Npwt) for Treating Pressure Ulcers

There is insufficient evidence on the effect of negative pressure wound therapy (NPWT) compared with alternatives for the treatment of pressure ulcers. Level of evidence: "D"

The quality of evidence is downgraded by study quality, indirectness (short-term outcomes) and imprecise results.

Summary

A Cochrane review [Abstract] 1 included 4 studies with a total of 149 subjects. Two studies compared NPWT with dressings; one study compared NPWT with a series of gel treatments and one study compared NPWT with 'moist wound healing'. One study had a 24-week follow-up period, and two had a six-week follow-up period, the follow-up time was unclear for one study. Only one study reported usable primary outcome data (complete wound healing), but this had only 12 participants and there were very few events (only one participant healed in the study). There was little other useful data available from the included studies on positive outcomes such as wound healing or negative outcomes such as adverse events.

Clinical comments

Note

Date of latest search:

    References

    • Dumville JC, Webster J, Evans D et al. Negative pressure wound therapy for treating pressure ulcers. Cochrane Database Syst Rev 2015;(5):CD011334. [PubMed]

Primary/Secondary Keywords