Prophylactic negative pressure wound therapy (NPWT) can effectively reduce surgical site complications after closed breast incisions, suggests a new systematic review of existing evidence.
The systematic review included seven studies that included 1500 breast incisions in 904 patients.
The evidence showed that NPWT was associated with a significantly reduced rate of total wound complications (OR, 0.36; 95% CI, 0.19-069; P=.002) and surgical site infection (OR, 0.45; 95% CI, 0.24-0.86; P=.015), as well as reductions in the rate of seroma (OR, 0.28; 95% CI, 0.13-0.59; P=.001), wound dehiscence (OR, 0.49; 95% CI, 0.32-0.72; P<.001) and wound necrosis (OR, 0.38; 95% CI, 0.19-0.78; P=.008).
However, the authors caution that there was statistically significant heterogeneity among studies of total wound complications.
The authors acknowledged that the widespread adaptation of NPWT in clinical practice is limited by its higher cost in comparison with conventional dressings, but they said further research evaluating the effect of NPWT on the length of hospital stay and need for readmission or re-intervention could find long-term cost-saving potential of this technology.
