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Negative Pressure Wound Therapy in DiabeticFoot WoundsLUÍS SILVESTRE, ANA EVANGELISTA, RUY FERNANDES E FERNANDES, LUÍS MENDES PEDROAND JOSÉ FERNANDES E FERNANDES- Department of Vascular Surgery, Hospital de Santa Maria. Lisboa. Portugal- Instituto Cardiovascular de Lisboa, Lisboa, PortugalINTRODUCTIONFoot problems in diabetic patients remaina major public health issue and are the mostcommon cause of hospitalization. The lifetimerisk of foot lesions (ulcer/gangrene) in diabe -tic patients has been estimated in 15% to 25%(1) and >15% of these lesions will ultimatelylead to amputation (2). The response to treatmentof many diabetic ulcers is poor, what hasled to the development of different types ofinterventions aiming at improving healing.Recently, the International Working Group ofthe Diabetic Foot conducted a systematicreview concerning the interventions toimprove healing of these chronic ulcers (3)and concluded that Negative Pressure WoundTherapy (NPWT) as well as the hyperbaricoxygen therapy, were the only types of interventionswith published evidence to justify itsuse.The NPWT is a specific form of woundsuction within a sealed environment that iscreated by a negative pressure device with acollection container connected by a specializedtube to a porous foam which fills thewound (Figure 1). It was popularized byMorykwas and Argenta following their seminalstudies published in 1997 (4, 5) and hasbeen used since then, both as a primarytreatment of chronic and complex woundsand as an adjunct for temporary closure andwound bed preparation, preceding surgicalprocedures, such as skin grafts and flapsurgery.Figure 1. NPWT device applied to the foot wound.EFFECTS OF NEGATIVE PRESSUREWOUND THERAPYBasic research suggests several mechanismsof action of NPWT, such as mechanicalwound deformation, reduction of exudate andbacterial load, promotion of blood flow andgranulation tissue formation. However, thesemechanisms are not completely clear yet.Blood flowThe increase of blood flow seems to beproven whereas its mode of action remains

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