Wound vac question

gwenith, BSN, RN · Feb 24, 2004

I have seen some amazing results from wound vacs but without seeing the wound I could not give you a straight answer.

angelbear · Feb 24, 2004

Does the fact that it is infected with MRSA make a difference?

Tweety, BSN, RN · Feb 24, 2004

Does the fact that it is infected with MRSA make a difference?

Very good question, looking forward to an answer from someone in the know. I would think that it would not. By the time a wound is a candidate for a wound vac it's probably got all kinds of organisms in it, and that MRSA shouldn't matter. I'm fairly sure I've used it on MRSA patients before.

RubyRN,CHPN · Feb 24, 2004

Is the wound colonized or infected? I work in home health and have used wound vacs previously; however, in my training I believe there was something that was said re: it was not indicated for an infected wound. Check with your wound vac representative. I've seen them work well for large abdominal wounds.

angelbear · Mar 1, 2004

Thanks for the responses but apparently her doc doesnt want her on the vac. I had to ask anyway. I had it for my abdominal wound and it was awsome. Thanks

CoffeeRTC, BSN, RN · Mar 2, 2004

We've been using one on a guy with MRSA.

chrnnurseny · Mar 6, 2004

We have used the vac for large abd wounds. KCI even makes a dressing specifically for large abd wounds. Call your local rep to find out more about it. :balloons:

RN-PA, RN · Mar 6, 2004

We have used the vac for large abd wounds. KCI even makes a dressing specifically for large abd wounds. Call your local rep to find out more about it. :balloons:

We recently had a patient using the KCI wound vac for an abdominal wound infected with MRSA. It was my first experience with a wound vac and it seemed to work very well.

edib1 · Mar 16, 2004

I have a pt with a large abdominal wound. The wound was created when a combo tube went bad and had to be removed and replaced. The wound has MRSA my question is does that make the wound not a good candidate for the wound vac?

IT SHOULD NOT MATTER YOU COULD ACTUALLY USE IODOSORB WHICH IS A CADEXIMER IODINE THAT IS SLOWLY RELEASED IF USED ALONG WITH THE WOUND VAC IT WORKS WONDERS. ALL WOUNDS HAVE SOME SORT OF BACTERIAL INFECTION AND IODOSORB WORKS WONDERS. THE WOUND VAC WORKS WITH SUCTION TO HELP PROMOTE GRANULATION, SO IN TURN IT IS SUCTIONING ALL OF THE NECROTIC TISSUE OUT TO HELP THOSE WOUND MARGINS COME TOGETHER. THE IODOSORB HELPS TO FIGHT THE INFECTION, AND IT WORKS EXTREMELY WELL WITH MRSA.

sheilab · Mar 21, 2004

you need to remember to make sure the patient is not allergic to iodine first that their thyroid function is ok and that you patch test them first before you use it.you should only use 30-50grams a week. there are other dressings on the market that are good that are a good fight against mrsa, especially alot of the new silver dressings.:)

IT SHOULD NOT MATTER YOU COULD ACTUALLY USE IODOSORB WHICH IS A CADEXIMER IODINE THAT IS SLOWLY RELEASED IF USED ALONG WITH THE WOUND VAC IT WORKS WONDERS. ALL WOUNDS HAVE SOME SORT OF BACTERIAL INFECTION AND IODOSORB WORKS WONDERS. THE WOUND VAC WORKS WITH SUCTION TO HELP PROMOTE GRANULATION, SO IN TURN IT IS SUCTIONING ALL OF THE NECROTIC TISSUE OUT TO HELP THOSE WOUND MARGINS COME TOGETHER. THE IODOSORB HELPS TO FIGHT THE INFECTION, AND IT WORKS EXTREMELY WELL WITH MRSA.

BabaLouRN · Sep 30, 2010

I have again been met with the "can't put a wound vac on an infected wound" I've been involved with several of these concerns and finally learned from a KCI rep that the presence of an infection makes all the more need for a wound vac to pull away all the exudate from the body. I believe KCI requires documentation of the infection being Rx'd with antibiotic but certainly NOT contraindicated. I LOVE the Iodosorb idea... makes perfect sense to me.