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Blog
Strolling Down NPWT Memory Lane
08/29/2013
–Caroline Fife, MD, FAAFP, CWS, co-editor of TWC, chief medical officer at Intellicure Inc.
I would give a lot to have a picture of the first “portable” negative pressure wound therapy (NPWT) device used by one of my patients. It was 1977, and a resourceful woman who had experienced an abdominal wound had used bungee cord to attach one of the original NPWT devices that existed (about the size of a carry-on suitcase) to a skateboard. That orange, 50-foot, industrial-strength cord allowed her to ambulate from room to room, her skateboard trailing the NPWT device behind her.
I had been running a wound center for seven years at that time, and I will never forget the first time I changed an NPWT dressing and saw a field of beautiful granulation tissue — where only days before there had been none. I remember thinking, “This will revolutionize the way we care for patients.” I wasn’t wrong.
In this issue of Today’s Wound Clinic, we cover the spectrum of what NPWT means to wound care today. Lee Goldstein, MD, FACS, CWS, provides an historical perspective on negative pressure that will help readers compare mechanical and electronic forms of NPWT. My co-editor and fellow TWC board member Dot Weir, RN, CWON, CWS, discusses evidence-based benefits of the mechanical variety, which represents the next step forward for the innovation of NPWT. The impact of negative pressure utilization is further showcased in the article “Pairing Advanced Wound Care Therapy With NPWT” by Christina Le, LVN, WCC, who details the effects of NPWT when used in conjunction with other therapeutic options to expedite the healing of complex wounds in ways we could not have imagined 20 years ago. Also in this issue, Carol Price, MSN, RN, CWS, DAPWCA, details the delicate use of NPWT to gain closure of a giant omphalocele in newborns, another cutting-edge development in the field.