Negative-pressure wound therapy for musculoskeletal tumor surgery.

OBJECTIVE

To evaluate the effect of negative-pressure wound therapy in musculoskeletal tumor surgery patients.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

The authors analyzed the medical records of 32 patients treated at the authors' institution for bone and soft-tissue sarcomas and secondary wound-healing complications, from 2005 to 2008; there were 11 men and 21 women, with a mean age of 56 years (range, 35-72 years).

RESULTS

A statistically significant difference (P = .036) was found regarding the length of hospitalization in the conventional wound treatment group, group A (mean, 25.2 days; range, 15-52 days), compared with the negative wound pressure therapy group, group B (mean, 16.5 days; range, 12-33 days).

CONCLUSIONS

The use of negative-pressure wound therapy for the management of complicated wound healing in sarcoma patients following tumor surgery is safe and effective and is associated with lower overall complications rates, infection rate, and the need for further surgery and a lower total cost of wound-healing treatment.