Effectiveness of Negative Pressure Wound Therapies on the Healing Diabetic Foot Ulcer: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.

BACKGROUND

Negative pressure wound therapy (NPWT) is a technology-based modality therapy in the treatment of diabetic foot ulcers used by nursing. However, there are variations in its effectiveness among patients, which requires further research to better understand. This systematic study investigated the effect of NPWT on the healing of diabetic foot ulcer (DFU).

MATERIAL AND

METHODS

The databases consulted were CINAHL, ProQuest, PubMed, ScienceDirect, and Wiley, with a date range restriction from September 2003 to July 2022. The inclusion criteria were full-text articles with a randomized controlled trial design and English publication. They were using comprehensive meta-analysis (CMA) version 3.3.070 software to conduct a meta-analysis.

RESULTS

There were 1.375 participants in 14 trials, and residual heterogeneity analysis indicated wound healing I-squared (I2) of 97.70%, microcirculation I2 of 90.20%, and infection I2 of 98.50% (I2 > 50%), indicating high heterogeneity. The random effect model value showed a significant positive effect on wound healing with z = 0.01, microcirculation with z = 0.01, and negative effect on infected with z = 0.33. The analysis indicated that DFU wound healing had standard mean difference (SMD) = -0.36, 95% with confidence interval (CI): -0.92, -0.18, microcirculation improvement had SMD = 0.33, 95% CI: -0.68, 0.02, while infection control showed a negative result with SMD = 0.41, 95% CI: 0.62, 1.44, with a weak significant effect.

CONCLUSIONS

The findings of this study indicate that NPWT administered by nurses improves wound healing in DFU patients. Regarding infection control, this study did not produce statistically significant results.