Multicenter, Prospective, Randomized Clinical Trial of a Negative Pressure Incision Management System in High Risk Vascular Surgery Patients

Complications such as surgical site infections, deep wound infections, prosthetic graft infections, and non-infections problems such as wound dehiscence continue to cause significant morbidity for patients undergoing arterial reconstruction for peripheral arterial disease. Patients undergoing leg bypass surgery for limb salvage are at particular risk due to their medical problems such as diabetes and renal failure and location of incisions along the groin area. Surgical site infections (SSI) are estimated to occur in 5-40% of patients undergoing arterial bypass for lower extremity arterial occlusive disease. The in-hospital SSI rate is 5% across the Vascular Study Group of New England, a regional quality improvement registry. Factors contributing to wound infections include patient factors such as advanced age and comorbidities such as obesity, diabetes and renal insufficiency and surgical factors including the division of local lymphatics in the groin, placement of a prosthetic graft and inherent difficulty in keeping an incision across the groin crease covered, dry and protected.

Despite the use of standard sterile technique and perioperative preventative antibiotics infections these complications continue to cause patient morbidity. In addition these complications increase the intensity and cost of care with an added estimated expense of $11,000 per incident. New strategies are needed to reduce these complications. Negative pressure wound therapy has the potential to prevent a variety of wound complications. One innovative strategy that has shown promise is the application of the Prevena dressing system over the closed surgical incision. The dressing consists of a sterile sponge that is placed over the incision followed by a plastic adhesive covering that is used to secure it to the skin forming an air-tight seal. The sponge is then connected by tubing to a vacuum that applies negative pressure to the closed system. This allows fluid to drain from the wound and into a container connected to the dressing. When compared to surgical dressing with sterile gauze and tape, the Prevena dressing system has the advantages of providing a sterile barrier, reducing tension on the incision, and removing fluid from the incision. Please refer to patient brochure for an illustration and further description of the Prevena dressing system.

Negative pressure wound therapy has been applied for many years to enhance healing of a variety of open wounds including pressure wounds, diabetic ulcers, venous stasis ulcers, open infected surgical to traumatic wounds and burns with variable success. The treatment is based on evenly distributed local negative pressure applied to the wound surface. The open wound is filled with a sponge and covered with an occlusive dressing which is then connected by means of a set of suction tubes to a device which applies negative pressure on the surface of the wound that can be adjusted either cyclically or continuously. The fluid from the wound is collected into a container. The benefits of negative pressure wound therapy have been reported to include removal of infectious material, reduction in edema and improved perfusion to tissue.

The success of negative pressure wound therapy with open wounds has been extrapolated to intact surgical incisions. Recently a negative pressure wound therapy dressing has been developed for use over closed surgical incisions.

The investigators aim to study the ability of a negative pressure wound therapy dressing to prevent wound complications after vascular surgery involving incisions in the groin.