Wound Vac System

Specialties Wound

Published

Has anyone encountered the dressing incorporating into the wound area itself? Working on a case (I am a Legal Nurse Consultant) and the dressing had incorporated itself into the underling tissue and the hardware used in a spinal instrumentation. Second surgeon was trying to revise first surgery and KCI did not have any suggestions as to what to do. What would cause this? Is it only the black dressing that would do this or would the silver also do this?Obviously it was retained somehow! Is there a recommendation for dressing count to be done per KCI or is it just protocol per each hospital or home care units? Any input appreciated Thanks!

We had the same problem of the black foam adhering to the granulated tissue...the KCI rep told us to use ADAPTIC on the wound bed and then apply the foam...I don't know why people would say NOT to use anything under the foam when the KCI people explain that the vac can be used with adaptic (which worked wonderfully) or a silver dressing if you make holes in it prior to insertion to allow the suction. Also if you have a tunneling area or unable to visualize where you are putting the foam...such as some major undermining...you are better off using the white foam which is stronger and won't rip apart. Granted the white foam won't give you the fastest results but it is better than leaving some of the black foam residue which can be devastating to the wound.

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I just want to thank everyone for their comments. I have resigned myself to not seeing him for some time, though to be honest I still don't understand why this surgery would require such an extensive wound and take so long to heal.

How come they sewed me up from the inside out when I had a C-section and again when I had a traditional, (non lady partsl), hysterectomy, yet that's not what was done here? Heck, they took a 10lb 6 oz, 22 inch baby out of me and that's way bigger than a colon right? I even drove 10 days after I had my son and two days after I had the hysterctomy. Obviously they didn't keep me long in the hospital! I am sure there is some medical reasoning as to the different types of healing needed....anyone got a good website I can look at or a book I could get my hands on at the librarary that I could check out?

Is it traditional for a colostomy that can't be done laprapscopically to require such a big cut? I had read up on colostomies a couple of years ago,(read what I could find on the Internet), and no where was it ever even hinted at that recovery could take so long. Hmmmm, just goes to prove u can't believe everything you read huh?

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i am not a nurse but my wife has a wound vac on her leg and her doctor wants her to have a skin graft but her healing is coming along quite nicely. in only 10 days she has improved form a 10cm wide 7cm long and 1.8 cm deep to 6.5cm wide, 4cm long and only .2cm deep. i was wondering if it would be worth it for her to go ahead and have the graft done or if the vac will heal just as fast.

any information or input would help us make the right decision for her because to be honest she really does not want the graft done but if it will speed up her recovery ALOT then she will go through with it. thank you in advance for your input and information on this matter

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Specializes in LTC/hospital, home health (VNA).

i am not a nurse but my wife has a wound vac on her leg and her doctor wants her to have a skin graft but her healing is coming along quite nicely. in only 10 days she has improved form a 10cm wide 7cm long and 1.8 cm deep to 6.5cm wide, 4cm long and only .2cm deep. i was wondering if it would be worth it for her to go ahead and have the graft done or if the vac will heal just as fast.

any information or input would help us make the right decision for her because to be honest she really does not want the graft done but if it will speed up her recovery ALOT then she will go through with it. thank you in advance for your input and information on this matter

The wound VAC can definitely heal up some large wounds rather quickly. Sometimes it is all a wound needs to heal, sometimes it is just used until surgery or something else needs done.But we can't offer medical advice here. Talk to your doctor about what you posted here and see what he/she thinks about it. It's worth a shot

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