Comparison of Wound Closure in Pressure Ulcers Between Single-use Negative Pressure Wound Therapy and Traditional Negative Pressure Wound Therapy: A Real World Analysis

Introduction: Evidence for single-use Negative Pressure Wound Therapy (sNPWT) in managing surgical incisions is demonstrated across chronic and surgical indications. However, there is limited evidence in chronic wounds. The aim of this study was to examine wound closure in sNPWT and tNPWT in Pressure Ulcers (PU) from a real-world evidence perspective. Methods: This retrospective cohort study was conducted by identifying PU from an outpatient wound clinic EMR from 2014 to 2018. The treatment period began with the first application of NPWT and continued until the PU closed or the patient was lost to follow-up. Patients were excluded if they received both types of NPWT or had missing wound clinical information. Patients were matched on demographic characteristics; comorbidities and baseline wound surface area, wound depth, and wound age using propensity score matching. Wound closure rate was reported descriptively and estimated using multiple logistic regression analysis. Number of wound closed and surface area was reported at monthly interval. Results: One-to-one propensity score matching method matched 111 sNPWT to tNPWT patients with baseline surface area of 6.76 cm2 and 7.74 cm2, respectively. Descriptive analysis estimated that sNPWT improved wound closure (40.54% vs 25.23%; p-value=0.0152) while regression analysis estimated sNPWT wounds were 110% more likely to close (OR=2.10; 95% CI=1.04-4.23; p-value=0.0376). In addition, sNPWT patients had higher number of wound closed and higher surface area reduction at monthly follow-up period. Before matching, there were 133 sNPWT and 700 tNPWT patients with mean initial surface area of 6.27 cm2 and 16.43 cm2, respectively and descriptive analysis estimated that sNPWT had statistically significant higher wound closure rate (36.09% vs 21.71%; p-value=0.0004). Conclusions: Single-use Negative pressure wound therapy is associated with significantly higher wound closure rate compared to traditional negative pressure wound therapy in surgical wounds.