Primary hip + knee arthroplasty: Single use NPWT for closed surgical incisions

Primary hip + knee arthroplasty:  Single use negative pressure wound therapy  (sNPWT) for closed surgical incisions

There is a cascade of surgical site complications in orthopaedic surgery. There is a pathway of complications which begins from excess oedema and finishes with deep prosthetic infection. Each of these complications has a resource impact and if not addressed the patient will continue to be impacted.

Wound drainage:

• Persistent wound drainage increases the risk of infection
• Each day of prolonged wound drainage increased the risk of wound infection in TKA + THA.
• Morbid obesity was strongly associated with prolonged wound drainage in THA.
• Prolonged wound drainage increased hospital stay.
• Deep wound infection is correlated to superficial infection.

This short video is a documentary interview with the lead author of the Randomised Control Trial  Mr Sudheer Karlakki (Consultant Orthopaedic Surgeon) along with insights from his study team based at Robert Jones and Agnes Hunt Hospital, UK.

The primary objective of the research was to explore the potential benefits of single use negative pressure wound therapy dressing to achieve predictable outcome in patients undergoing hip and knee replacement surgery.

Learning Objectives 

• Understand the protocol of the randomised controlled trial in primary arthroplasty
• Recall the clinical outcomes of the RCT
• Understand the economic outcomes of the RCT
• Identify which patients that are particularly high risk