Using medical silicone to ensure an airtight negative pressure wound therapy dressing seal in challenging wounds: a case series

Negative pressure wound therapy (NPWT) has been used for a broad range of indications and wound types. However, it can be difficult to maintain an airtight dressing seal when the wound is located in an anatomically challenging area or environment. To address this problem, medical silicone, used to create intraoral vacuum dressings, was used in five patients (one woman, four men, age range 57 to 66 years) to seal leaking NPWT dressings (four polyurethane dressings and one polyurethane silver foam dressing). The wounds were located in the head and neck, abdominal, lower extremity, and anogenital areas. Initial wound sizes ranged from 2.5 cm² to 700 cm², and periwound areas were characterized by irregular surfaces (scars, skin folds, or curved surfaces), humid milieu, or mobile structures. In all five patients, negative pressure was set at -125 mm Hg constant suction, and the silicone was able to seal the leaking dressings. Wound size reductions from 2.5 cm² to 13.5 cm² were observed during 9 to 64 days (range) of NPWT treatment. In these patients, medical silicone was found to be a suitable material to facilitate airtight sealing of the dressings used with NPWT.