Vacuum Assisted Closure Improves the Quality of Life in Patients with Diabetic Foot

Evaluation of negative-pressure wound therapy for patients with diabetic foot ulcers: systematic review and meta-analysis

“…We evaluated the quality of the included RCTs according to the Cochrane reviewers’ handbook 12. For the included studies, seven of the eleven published articles13–15,17,18,22,23 (63.6%) described specific randomized methods and processes; we judged one report21 to be at high risk of bias for this domain because of randomization based on the date of admission. Three articles13,14,18 (27%) reported allocation concealment methods.…”

Effectiveness and Safety of Negative-Pressure Wound Therapy for Diabetic Foot Ulcers

“…31 In the present meta-analysis, only one randomized controlled trial evaluated the quality of life using the 36-Item Short Form Health Survey instrument, which suggested that negative-pressure wound therapy might improve mental and physical health compared with non-negative-pressure wound therapy. 23 It was disappointing that none of the randomized controlled trials assessed costeffectiveness, although two recent observational studies found that negative-pressure wound therapy can cut down costs of chronic wound management and save money by its effect on expediting wound healing. 32,33 Considering the increased ulcer healing, shortened time of ulcer healing, and reduction of secondary amputations, negative-pressure wound therapy appears to lower the costs of care and save resource use for the treatment of diabetic foot ulcers.…”

“…23 This study provided some evidence to suggest that negative-pressure wound therapy might improve mental and physical health compared with nonnegative-pressure wound therapy. …”

“…Seven studies had high quality, as evaluated using modified Jadad rating scales (scores ≥4), [19][20][21][22][24][25][26] and one study had low quality (score 3). 23 Details of the methodologic quality of randomized controlled trials are summarized in Table 2.…”

“…Of these trials, eight randomized controlled trials met all inclusion and exclusion criteria published between 2000 and 2011. [19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26] The eight studies involved 669 patients with diabetic foot ulcers. In three of these studies, foot ulcers were characterized using the Texas Diabetic Wound Classification System 19,25 and the Wagner Scale, 20 whereas in the remaining five studies, there were no descriptions on relevant information.…”