Review
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2017. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Dermatol. Feb 2, 2017; 6(1): 1-16
Published online Feb 2, 2017. doi: 10.5314/wjd.v6.i1.1
Evidence based review of negative pressure wound therapy
Adriana C Panayi, Tripp Leavitt, Dennis P Orgill
Adriana C Panayi, School of Clinical Medicine, University of Cambridge, Cambridge CB2 0SP, United Kingdom
Tripp Leavitt, Boston University School of Medicine, Boston, MA 02115, United States
Dennis P Orgill, Department of Surgery, Division of Plastic Surgery, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02115, United States
Author contributions: Panayi AC gathered and analyzed the data, drafted and edited the manuscript; Leavitt T assisted in revision of the manuscript and figures; Orgill DP supervised and assisted in the drafting and provided critical revision of the manuscript.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors have no conflict of interest related to the manuscript. Dr. Orgill is a consultant for KCI and receives research funding through grants to Brigham and Women's Hospital.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Correspondence to: Dr. Dennis P Orgill, Department of Surgery, Division of Plastic Surgery, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School, 75 Francis St., Boston, MA 02115, United States. dorgill@partners.org
Telephone: +1-617-5257837 Fax: +1-617-7302855
Received: August 26, 2016
Peer-review started: September 27, 2016
First decision: October 15, 2016
Revised: December 16, 2016
Accepted: January 11, 2017
Article in press: January 12, 2017
Published online: February 2, 2017
Processing time: 147 Days and 16.3 Hours
Core Tip

Core tip: Negative pressure wound therapy has been very beneficial in the wound care of many different kinds of wounds, from pressure ulcers to open fractures mostly due to its mechanism of action which we explain in detail. We explain the original purpose of this technology and going into detail about the many different ways it is currently being used in a clinical setting. Our review also explains its advantages and disadvantages and how they could be overcome. The last part of this review discusses the future of this technology and how it will keep impacting the field of wound care.