Ostomy/wound management
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Ostomy/wound management · Mar 2008
Acoustic pressure wound therapy for management of mixed partial- and full-thickness burns in a rural wound center.
Infection, pain, and cosmetically unacceptable scarring frequently complicate full-thickness burns. Outpatient management can be difficult without specialized care. A retrospective case series study was conducted in a rural wound center lacking specialized burn care to assess the clinical effectiveness of acoustic pressure wound therapy, a noncontact low-frequency, nonthermal ultrasound wound therapy that accelerates healing through positive pressure, stimulating fibroblasts, clearing bacteria and debris, and relieving pain. ⋯ Scars available for follow-up (71%) remained unchanged. Acoustic pressure wound therapy with standard burn care was found to heal mixed partial- and full-thickness burns and reduced pain in outpatients, resulting in cosmetically acceptable scarring without infectious complications, surgery, or skin grafts and may prove beneficial for inpatient management of extensive full-thickness burns. Further study is warranted.