Background: Acute and chronic wounds and are a major cause of morbidity and impaired quality of life. The present study was conducted to assess the efficacy of vacuum assisted closure dressings as compared to conventional moist wound dressings in improving the healing process in chronic wounds and to prove that negative pressure dressings can be used as a much better treatment option in the management of chronic wounds. Materials & methods: The present study was carried out with following two groups of 30 patients each: Group A: Patients treated with Vacuum Assisted Closure (VAC), Group B: Patients treated with conventional dressings. The wounds were reassessed at the end of the fifth postoperative day and the following parameters were accounted for. They were, -Skin graft takes up as a percentage of ulcer surface area -Number of days of hospitalization. All the results were analysed by SPSS software. Results: There was significant difference between the groups as per Student t-test. The mean percentage of granulation tissue formation in Group A was 78.8 ± 19.07 and in Group B was 50.3 ± 25.65, which is found to be statistically significant (p<0.05). 4 (13.3%) and 2 (6.7%) patients in Group A and Group B respectively had no pain after 4 weeks of treatment whereas 8 and 3 patients respectively had mild pain. 12 and 14 patients had moderate pain while 6 and 11 patients from Group A and Group B respectively had severe pain. There was no significant difference between the groups as per Chi-Square test (p>0.05). Conclusion: Vacuum dressing is more efficient than the normal conventional dressings. Thus, vacuum assisted closure dressing can be considered as a superior option in the management of infected wounds.
Key words: Infected, Vacuum, Wound 

Received: 14 February, 2019                             Revised: 24 February, 2019                     Accepted: 27 February, 2019

Corresponding author: Dr. Jaswinder Kaur, Professor and Head, Department of General Surgery, Adesh Medical College & Hospital, Bathinda, Punjab, India

This article may be cited as: Gupta V, Kaur J. Assessment and Comparison of Efficacy of Vacuum Assisted Closure and Conventional Dressings in the Management of Infected Wounds. Int J Res Health Allied Sci 2019; 5(2):51-54.