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Published on: May 2, 2025
Silver-Impregnated Negative-Pressure Wound Therapy for the Treatment of Lower-Extremity Open Wounds: A Prospective
Hyung Min Hahn1, Il Jae Lee, Kyong-Je Woo
1At the Department of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, Ajou University College of Medicine, in Seoul, South Korea, Hyung Min Hahn, MD, is an Assistant Professor; and Il Jae Lee, PhD, MD, is an Associate Professor. At the Department of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, Ewha Womans University School of Medicine, in Seoul, Korea, Kyong-je Woo PhD, MD, is an Assistant Professor; and Bo Young Park, PhD, MD, is Assistant Professor and Chairman. Acknowledgments: This research was supported by a grant of the Korea Health Technology R&D Project through the Korea Health Industry Development Institute, funded by the Ministry of Health & Welfare, Republic of Korea (grant HI16C0966). The authors have disclosed no other financial relationships related to this article. Submitted September 3, 2019; accepted in revised form October 9, 2018.
Objective:
To investigate the antibacterial efficacy of silver-impregnated negative-pressure wound therapy (NPWT) in lower-extremity acute traumatic wounds.
Methods:
Open contaminated wounds caused by high-velocity trauma in the lower extremities were randomly allocated into two groups. The wounds in the control and experimental groups were treated with conventional NPWT (n = 31) and silver-impregnated NPWT (n = 35), respectively.
Main Outcome Measures:
Serial bacterial cultures were obtained from the participants' wounds, polyurethane foam, and suction tubes weekly during the 4-week follow-up to identify bacteria and follow their conversions.
Main Results:
Bacterial colonization rates in the silver NPWT group were generally lower than those in the conventional NPWT group, and the difference increased with time. For methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus colonization, wounds treated with silver-impregnated NPWT showed a significant reduction in bacterial load compared with those treated with conventional NPWT.
Conclusions:
Silver-impregnated NPWT effectively decreases bacterial load in open contaminated wounds of the lower extremities. It can be used as a temporizing measure to manage bacterial colonization while patients and wounds are being prepared for final wound reconstruction.
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