Negative pressure wound therapy in total hip and knee arthroplasty: a meta-analysis.

To assess the efficiency and safety of negative pressure wound therapy (NPWT) in the total hip and knee arthroplasty, we conducted a meta-analysis from randomized controlled trials. Potential academic articles were identified from the Cochrane Library, PubMed, Embase, Springer and ScienceDirect. Secondary sources were identified from the references of the included literature. RevMan 5.1 was used to analyze the pooled data. Six randomized controlled trials met the inclusion criteria. Meta-analysis showed more superficial surgical site infection and blisters in patients with total knee arthroplasty. There were no significant differences between two groups in total infection and total complications. NPWT decreased the incidence of superficial surgical site infection. More blisters were noticed in patients with NPWT after total knee arthroplasty.