Complications associated with the negative pressure therapy in the treatment of the diabetic foot ulcers: Retrospective case series

Introduction

Torpid evolution of diabetic foot ulcers (DFU) is a complex problem of health of patients and causes an increase in costs for the health system. Negative pressure therapy (NPT) is a treatment that accelerates healing by a negative pressure flow applied to the wound to stimulate a series of physiological processes in chronic wounds.

Patients and methods

We performed a retrospective case series study that evaluated the complications associated to NPT in the treatment of DFU in patients from the Diabetic Foot Unit of the Universidad Complutense de Madrid from 2011 to 2015.

Results

Fifty-seven (83.8%) patients who underwent NPT were analyzed and complications during the time that NPT was maintained were collected. Skin maceration of wound borders was found in 49% of the patients, bleeding (14%), necrosis (12%), local infection (7%) and local pain (2%).

Discussion

The periwound maceration was the most frequent complication and the most easily resolved. After resolution of the complications, 80% of the patients obtained a favorable result with the therapy, so it can be concluded that NPT is an effective and safe therapy for the treatment of DFU.