Comparing hospital stay and patient satisfaction in a resource poor setting using conventional and locally adapted negative pressure wound dressing methods in management of leg ulcers with split skin grafts: a comparative prospective study.
Introduction
chronic leg ulcers cause a prolonged hospital stay with devastating effects on the patients. Several modifiable factors are taken care of to reduce the duration of stay. A further measure to hasten wound bed preparation pre-grafting and to hasten graft healing post-grafting is with negative pressure dressing.


Methods
sixty-two patients were placed in two groups of 31 cases each. The wound beds were prepared with negative pressure apparatus locally adapted with suction machine for group A and with conventional gauze dressing using 5% povidone iodine soaks for group B. Grafted wound was also dressed similarly for the respective groups. Grafts were inspected on the 5th post-operative day and were determined with planimeter grid. Grafts were monitored until completely healed and patients were discharged. Satisfaction and length of stay were determined at discharge.


Results
the mean hospital stay pre-grafting and post-grafting were 12.2 (±8.64) days and 13.6 (±2.03) days respectively for the negative pressure dressing and 28.8 (±30.9) days and 21.8 (±21.97) days respectively for the traditional dressing group. These differences with p values of 0.038 for the pre-grafting stay and 0.006 for the post-grafting stay were statistically significant. The patients managed with negative pressure dressing also recorded greater satisfaction with the process and the outcome.


Conclusion
negative pressure dressing contributes significantly to reducing the length of hospital stay in chronic leg ulcers both in wound bed preparation and in graft healing resulting to better patient satisfaction than in patients treated with conventional gauze dressing and 5% povidone iodine soaks.
['Maduba|Charles Chidiebele|CC|', 'Nnadozie|Ugochukwu Uzodimma|UU|', 'Modekwe|Victor Ifeanyichukwu|VI|', 'Nwankwo|Ezekiel Uchechukwu|EU|']
D000891:Anti-Infective Agents, Local D001458:Bandages D005260:Female D006801:Humans D007871:Leg Ulcer D007902:Length of Stay D008297:Male D054843:Negative-Pressure Wound Therapy D017060:Patient Satisfaction D011206:Povidone-Iodine D011446:Prospective Studies D016038:Skin Transplantation D014945:Wound Healing
patient satisfaction negative pressure dressing Conventional gauze dressing length of stay