Related Experiment Video
Updated: Aug 28, 2025
Development of a Benchtop Model for Evaluating the Compatibility of Wound Dressing Materials with Negative Pressure Wound Therapy Systems
Published on: May 2, 2025
Device for Negative Pressure Wound Therapy in Low-Resource Regions: Open-Source Description and Bench Test Evaluation
Ramon Farré1,2,3, Miguel A Rodríguez-Lázaro1, Julian Gonzalez-Martin4,5
1Unitat de Biofísica i Bioenginyeria, Facultat de Medicina i Ciències de la Salut, Universitat de Barcelona, 08036 Barcelona, Spain.
Background:
Negative (vacuum) pressure therapy promotes wound healing. However, commercially available devices are unaffordable to most potential users in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), limiting access to many patients who could benefit from this treatment. This study aimed to design and test a cheap and easy-to-build negative pressure device and provide its detailed open-source description, thereby enabling free replication.
Methods:
the negative pressure device was built using off-the-shelf materials available via e-commerce and was based on a small pump, a pressure transducer, and the simplest Arduino controller with a digital display (total retail cost ≤ 75 US$). The device allows the user to set any therapeutic range of intermittent negative pressure and has two independent safety mechanisms. The performance of the low-cost device was carefully tested on the bench using a phantom wound, producing a realistic exudate flow rate.
Results:
the device generates the pressure patterns set by the user (25-175 mmHg of vacuum pressure, 0-60 min periods) and can drain exudate flows within the clinical range (up to 1 L/h).
Conclusions:
a novel, low-cost, easy-to-build negative pressure device for wound healing displays excellent technical performance. The open-source hardware description provided here, which allows for free replication and use in LMICs, will facilitate the application and wider utilization of this therapy to patients.
