Standardizing Support Surface Testing and Reporting: A National Pressure Ulcer Advisory Panel Executive Summary.

In 2001, the National Pressure Ulcer Advisory Panel's Research Committee identified the need to create uniform terminology, test methods, and reporting technical standards for support surfaces. As a result, the S3I Committee was formed and initial meetings of interested stakeholders who included clinicians, researchers, academics, manufacturers, providers, and regulators were held. The group's initial goal was to (1) establish common language to facilitate understanding by developing standardized terminology for describing and discussing support surfaces, (2) establish a suite of standardized tests of performance capable of repeatedly, reliably, and accurately reporting upon characteristics common to all support surfaces that are believed to be related to the extrinsic risk factors associated with skin breakdown, as indicated by the literature to date, and (3) identify and standardize methods to evaluate the effective life of a support surface. The purpose of this article was to summarize the current status of the effort of the Support Surface Standards Initiative (S3I) Committee to identify and standardize methods to evaluate the many characteristic factors that determine the effective life of a support surface.

Negative Pressure Wound Therapy With Controlled Saline Instillation (NPWTi): Dressing Properties and Granulation Response In Vivo.

Negative pressure wound therapy (NPWT) with reticulated open-cell foam (ROCF) dressings (ROCF G, V.A.C.® GranuFoamTM Dress- ing, KCI USA, Inc, San Antonio, TX) creates a healing environment that removes wound exudates, reduces edema, and promotes perfusion and granulation tissue formation. Controlled instillation of saline dur- ing NPWT (NPWTi) may further enhance healing by facilitating auto- matic and contained volumetric wound irrigation and cleansing. A new ROCF dressing (ROCF-V, V.A.C. VeraFloTM Dressing, KCI USA, Inc, San Antonio, TX) has been developed for use with NPWTi; benchtop and in vivo tests compared the properties and performance of both ROCF-G and ROCF-V. Pore size and density (contributors to microdeformation) are similar for both ROCF-G and ROCF-V, while mechanical testing demonstrates ROCF-V is stronger than ROCF-G under both tensile and tear loading. ROCF-V surface energy is higher than ROCF-G, making ROCF-V less hydrophobic. Under wet conditions ROCF-V wicks more fluid and shows less pressure drop than ROCF-G, suggesting ROCF-V may be better suited for NPWTi. After 7 days of therapy in a porcine full-thickness excisional wound model, NPWTi with ROCF-V resulted in a 43% increase (P < 0.05) in granulation tissue thickness compared to NPWT with ROCF-G. These data suggest NPWTi with ROCF-V creates a wound healing environment that provides enhanced granulation tissue formation compared to standard NPWT with ROCF-G. .