Artificial dermis combined with negative pressure wound therapy and platelet-rich plasma to treat traumatic wounds: a retrospective study

Objective: The reconstruction of complex soft tissue defects with exposure of bones and tendons represents an increasing challenge in wound care, especially in large extremity wounds. The aim of this study was to detect the clinical efficacy of combined use of negative pressure wound therapy (NPWT), artificial dermis (ADM), platelet-rich plasma (PRP) and split-thickness skin grafting (STSG) in the reconstruction of large traumatic extremity skin defects. Method: In this study, eight cases were treated with combined therapies for repairing complex extremity wounds and the results were reviewed retrospectively. After surgical debridement, all wounds received ADM, PRP and delayed STSG, which were all aided with NPWT. Results: The patients consisted of five males and three females, with a mean age of 44 years. A total of six lower extremity wounds were located at the foot/ankle, with exposed tendon in five, bone exposure in three and both in two. Of the group, two patients had exposed tendon on arm/hand wounds. The size of wounds and ADM averaged 126cm 2 and 42.3cm 2 , respectively. ADM was used to cover the exposed bone or tendon, the granulation and muscular tissue were covered with vacuum sealing drainage (VSD) directly, for NPWT. The survival rate of ADM averaged 98.9%. The average time for survival of ADM was 12.8 days and the mean uptake of autologous skin graft was 93.5%. Only one patient received repeated skin grafts. All patients achieved successful healing and reported no complications. The mean length of hospital stay was 36.1 days. Conclusion: Our study revealed that ADM in conjunction with NPWT, PRP and STSG could be used for repairing large traumatic extremity wounds. Wound closure was achieved without flaps, the aesthetic and functional outcomes were acceptable, and only one patient developed a 35% loss of skin graft. Declaration of interest: This work was supported by grants from the Natural Science Foundation of Hubei Province (grant no. 2020CFB464) and Youth Foundation of Wuhan Municipal Health Commission (grant no. WX20Q15). The authors have no conflicts of interest to declare.