Vacuum assisted closure (V.A.C.) dressings – Our experience in a limited resource setup

Since, its introduction in 1990s, vacuum assisted closure (V.A.C.) has been known to reduce the wound healing time along with promotion of granulation tissue as compared to conventional dressing techniques. The therapy involves controlled application of negative pressure to the local wound environment using a sealed wound dressing connected to a vacuum pump. Recent introduction of the commercial products for vacuum dressings have added to enormous costs of these dressings. We at our limited resource setup, provided our patients with a very cheap alternative for the vacuum assisted dressings with the help of locally available materials. We hereby present few of the challenges that our patients posed to us in the course of vacuum assisted closure therapy and how they were handled in our setup with limited available resources.