Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Review
. 2022 Oct 26;9(11):614.
doi: 10.3390/bioengineering9110614.

Negative Pressure Wound Therapy in Spinal Surgery

Alexandra Jeanne White  1 , Ronit Gilad  2 , Soriaya Motivala  2 , Brian Fiani  3 , Jonathan Rasouli  2
Affiliations
Review

Negative Pressure Wound Therapy in Spinal Surgery

Alexandra Jeanne White et al. Bioengineering (Basel). .

Abstract

Negative pressure wound therapy (NPWT) has demonstrated promise in the management of surgical site infections as well as assisting in surgical wound healing. In this manuscript, we describe the mechanisms and applications of NPWT for surgical wounds and existing evidence for NPWT in cardiac, plastic, and general surgery, followed by a discussion of the emerging evidence base for NPWT in spinal surgery. We also discuss the different applications of NPWT for open wounds and closed incisions, and the promise of newer closed-incision NPWT (ciNPWT) devices. There is nominal but promising prospective evidence on NPWT's efficacy in select at-risk populations for post-operative wound complications after spinal surgery. As there is currently a paucity of robust clinical evidence on its efficacy, rigorous randomized prospective clinical trials are needed.

Keywords: infection prevention; spine surgery; surgical site infection; wound dressing; wound healing; wound management.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

References

    1. Webster J., Liu Z., Norman G., Dumville J.C., Chiverton L., Scuffham P., Stankiewicz M., Chaboyer W.P. Negative Pressure Wound Therapy for Surgical Wounds Healing by Primary Closure. Cochrane Database Syst. Rev. 2019;3:CD009261. doi: 10.1002/14651858.CD009261.pub4. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Scalise A., Calamita R., Tartaglione C., Pierangeli M., Bolletta E., Gioacchini M., Gesuita R., Benedetto G. Di Improving Wound Healing and Preventing Surgical Site Complications of Closed Surgical Incisions: A Possible Role of Incisional Negative Pressure Wound Therapy. A Systematic Review of the Literature. Int. Wound J. 2016;13:1260–1281. doi: 10.1111/iwj.12492. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Horch R.E., Ludolph I., Müller-Seubert W., Zetzmann K., Hauck T., Arkudas A., Geierlehner A. Topical Negative-Pressure Wound Therapy: Emerging Devices and Techniques. Expert Rev. Med. Devices. 2020;17:139–148. doi: 10.1080/17434440.2020.1714434. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Webster J., Scuffham P., Sherriff K.L., Stankiewicz M., Chaboyer W.P. Negative Pressure Wound Therapy for Skin Grafts and Surgical Wounds Healing by Primary Intention. Cochrane Database Syst. Rev. 2012;4:CD009261. - PubMed
    1. Agarwal P., Kukrele R., Sharma D. Vacuum Assisted Closure (VAC)/Negative Pressure Wound Therapy (NPWT) for Difficult Wounds: A Review. J. Clin. Orthop. Trauma. 2019;10:845–848. doi: 10.1016/j.jcot.2019.06.015. - DOI - PMC - PubMed