coexisting rheumatoid arthritis: a case study
We present a case of a 69-year-old woman with rheumatoid arthritis. The patient’s condition was managed with steroid therapy for more than 12 years. She had a coexisting infected chronic ulceration in the left leg, which was treated with negative pressure wound therapy for 52 days. Use of this therapy within the wound reduced exudate and the bacterial count, which dramatically accelerated the process of wound healing.
The introduction of negative pressure wound therapy (NPWT) in the early 1990s resulted in a change in the concept of care and treatment of wounds of various aetiologies in the hospital and outpatient care settings. NPWT is increasingly being used in primary and home health care because of its non-invasiveness, high efficacy, shortening the time of wound healing, and improving wound healing, thereby greatly reducing the need for hospital treatment.1–3 NPWT requires specialized equipment with manual control of negative pressure. Negative pressure is maintained in the wound bed with ready-made sterile sets (sponge, proper dressing, adapter, polyurethane foil). Negative pressure causes wound shrinkage and reduction of the bacterial count by evacuating the effusion into a disposable canister placed on the device.4,5 Although the potential of NPWT … read more