The role of intermittent negative pressure wound therapy combined with a mesh incision in the salvage of perforator flap with venous congestion, a case report

Abstract

Background: The application of perforator flap is becoming wide. The most common postoperative complication is venous congestion but traditional treatments’ effect is limited. A new method called negative pressure wound therapy(NPWT) was introduced to improve wound healing. Many scholars have tried this method with continuous mode and achieved good outcomes. In this paper, we tried a different mode(intermittent) of negative pressure wound therapy on congested perforator flaps after a mesh incision, and we expected this paper could provide information for follow-up clinical research.Case presentation: A retrospective research of 6 patients (6 perforator flaps) who had been suffered from venous congestion from June, 2016 to June, 2019 was performed. All flaps were treated by intermittent negative pressure wound therapy after a mesh incision. Among 6 flaps, 4 of them were totally survived while the other 2 of them were mostly survived.Conclusions: Intermittent negative pressure wound therapy combined with a mesh incision can be a safe option to rescue perforator flaps with venous congestion. This technique has a certain success rate and clinical application value.