Our experience with a "homemade" vacuum-assisted closure system.

BACKGROUND: Negative-pressure therapy for the closure of wounds, a technique to accelerate secondary wound healing, is clinically available as the V.A.C. system (KCI Inc, San Antonio, TX, U.S.A.). Budgetary considerations in our institution precluded widespread use of the expensive V.A.C. system in routine cases. OBJECTIVES: To develop a less expensive comparably effective dressing, based on the same principles. METHODS: We used our "homemade" system to treat 15 patients with appropriate complex wounds. Their hospital charts were reviewed and assessed retrospectively. Cost analysis was performed comparing our dressing with the V.A.C. system. RESULTS: Our homemade negative-pressure wound treatment system obtained results similar to what one could expect with the V.A.C. system in all parameters. Complications encountered were few and minor. Cost per day using our negative-pressure system for a 10 cm2 wound is about U.S. $1, as compared to U.S. $22, utilizing the V.A.C. system. CONCLUSIONS: Our homemade negative-pressure system proved to be a good cost-effective treatment for wound closure in hospitalized patients, yielding results comparable to those of the more expensive V.A.C. system.