Over the past decade, the use of negative pressure wound therapy (NPWT) devices has increased and expanded to include a wide variety of patients. However, the safety and efficacy of NPWT over skin in open fractures is still unknown. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the complication rate and outcome of open fractures treated by NPWT over closed wounds or flaps. We performed a retrospective review of prospectively collected data of 10 patients, with an average age of 37.9 years old, who underwent NPWT over surgically closed wounds or random pattern cutaneous flaps in open fractures. All wounds were debrided and closed, and NPWT was applied over the skin sequentially in emergency operations.Introduction
Materials and methods