Compari̇son of negative pressure wound therapy and conventional wound dressing in fournier's gangrene

Objective: The aim of this study is to compare Fournier's Gangrene patients who were treated with Conventional Wound Dressing and Negative Pressure Wound Therapy. Materials and Methods: 64 patients who were followed and treated between 2011 and July 2020 in Dicle University Urology clinic included in this study. CWD patients in Group 1 and NPWT patients in Group 2 included in this study. The patients were retrospectively analyzed in terms of demographic characteristics, etiologies, hospitalization durations, number of debridements, additional surgeries, FGSI scores, analgesic requiremets, the area of necrosis involved and their amount. Results: 37 patients in Group 1 and 27 patients in Group 2 included in this study. All the patients were male. There was no statistically significant difference between group 1 and 2 in terms of average age of the patients. The mean hospitalization time was 17.9±1.8 days in group 1 and 12.7±1.1 days in group 2. Although there was a difference between groups but it wasn't statistically significant(p:0.91) The mean number of debridements were 7.1±0.8 and 3.7±0.3 in Group 1 and 2, respectively. There was statistically significant difference(p:0.004). The mean analgesic requirements were 2.4±0.12 and 1.44±0.08 in group 1 and 2, respectively. There was statistically significant difference between groups(p:<0.001). FGSI scores were 4.6±0.5 and 3.8±0.6 in Group 1 and 2, respectively(p:0.227). 4 patients in Group 1 and 2 patients in Group 2 deceased(p:1.0). The mean FGSI score was 3.4±0.3 for the patients who lived and 12.5±1 for the patients who deceased. There was statistically significantly difference between them(p:<0.001). Conclusion: NPWT decreases the number of debridements and analgesic requirements but it doesn't decrease hospitalization duration.