Mieczyslawa Franczyk
University of Chicago Medicine| USA
Title: Workshop on Negative Pressure Wound Therapy (NPWT) evolving integration of technology for wound management
Biography
Biography: Mieczyslawa Franczyk
Abstract
The efficacy of Negative Pressure Wound Therapy (NPWT) leading to reduction in wound volume and promotion of wound healing has been well documented in literature (C. Huang et al Current problems in Surgery 51 (2014) 301-331). Negative Pressure Wound Therapy (NPWT) or Sup-Atmospheric Wound Therapy (SAWT) is a term that refers to any devices that applies differential suction to wounds. A number of commercially available devices exist within this definition. Few of the challenges with commercialized equipment used for NPWT are the overall cost and ideal applications in the wound can be very challenging and painful. From a health care providers' standpoint, our obvious interest is to come up with more cost effective, less painful and easy to apply wound closure dressing. In our hospital burn wound and other complex wound care is provided by a physical therapist for last 40 years. NPWT dressing as a new modality for wound management was introduced in 1999. Throughout my 15 years working with NPWT dressing I was confronted with a lot of critically ill patients (more than 300 patients a year) with complex wounds under NPWT dressing. I’ll share the success and more importantly challenges we have had with the application of NPWT dressing over:
-Sternal wounds: as a temporary wound closure in OR. For an infected Sternal wound (with or without open sternum).
-Open abdominal wound with exposed intestine (with or without fascia closure by mesh)
-Open wounds with fistulae
-Wounds over vascular graft
-Skin grafts over different body parts