ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND: Traditional negative-pressure wound therapy systems use an electrically powered pump to generate negative pressure at the wound bed. The SNaP Wound Care System is a novel, ultraportable device that delivers negative-pressure wound therapy without the use of an electrically powered pump. METHODS: At an outpatient wound care clinic, 21 subjects with difficult-to-treat lower extremity ulcers received treatment with the SNaP System and were evaluated for wound healing for up to 4 months. Outcomes were then compared with 42 patient-matched controls treated at the same center with modern wound care protocols that included the use of Apligraf, Regranex, and skin grafting. RESULTS: In the SNaP-treated group, 100 percent of subjects demonstrated improvement in wound size and 86 percent (18 of 21) exhibited a statistically significant healing trend (p < 0.05). Using Kaplan-Meier estimates of wound healing, SNaP-treated subjects healed in an average of 74.25 ± 20.1 days from the start of SNaP treatment and the matched controls healed in an average of 148.73 ± 63.1 days from the start of conventional treatment. This significantly faster healing time represents a 50 percent absolute reduction in time to healing (p < 0.0001) for subjects treated with the SNaP device. CONCLUSIONS: The findings reported here for the SNaP Wound Care System are similar to published reports for powered negative-pressure wound therapy devices for the treatment of highly challenging lower extremity wounds. This study suggests that the SNaP Wound Care System may be a useful addition to the techniques available to the wound care clinician.
Subject(s)
Bandages , Leg Ulcer/therapy , Negative-Pressure Wound Therapy/instrumentation , Skin Transplantation/methods , Aged , Aged, 80 and over , Becaplermin , Case-Control Studies , Chronic Disease , Collagen/pharmacology , Female , Foot Ulcer/therapy , Humans , Kaplan-Meier Estimate , Leg Ulcer/diagnosis , Male , Middle Aged , Negative-Pressure Wound Therapy/methods , Platelet-Derived Growth Factor/pharmacology , Proto-Oncogene Proteins c-sis , Retrospective Studies , Severity of Illness Index , Treatment Outcome , Wound Healing/physiologyABSTRACT
Although there is significant evidence supporting the use of negative pressure wound therapy (NPWT) for the treatment of lower extremity diabetic ulcers, currently available electrically powered NPWT systems are not ideally suited for treating smaller diabetic foot ulcers. The Smart Negative Pressure (SNaP) Wound Care System is a novel, ultraportable device that delivers NPWT without the use of an electrically powered pump. It was specifically designed to meet the wound care needs of patients with diabetes. The SNaP System is compact, silent, mobile, easy-to-use, and available off-the-shelf. It is fully disposable and may offer other important benefits over electrically powered systems to both the clinician and patient. We review the evidence for use of NPWT for the treatment of diabetic wounds and discuss the potential benefits of this new NPWT technology for patients with diabetes. We also present a case series of four difficult lower extremity diabetic ulcers that were successfully treated with the SNaP System. This study suggests that the SNaP System may be a useful addition to the armamentarium of the diabetic wound care clinician.
