Benefits of surgical incision management now available to more patients
SAN ANTONIO - Thursday, May 23rd 2013 [ME NewsWire]
(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Kinetic Concepts, Inc. today launched a Prevena™ Peel & Place™ Dressing with a V.A.C.® Connector, which expands the availability of the Prevena™ Incision Management System. Now more patients will be able to benefit from surgical incision protection in facilities currently utilizing KCI V.A.C.® Therapy Systems. Surgeons will also have the flexibility to actively manage incisions with a variety of KCI therapy systems and dressing configurations to deliver the optimum patient outcome.
“We’ve been asking KCI for a connector that makes the Prevena™ Peel & Place™ Dressings compatible with its other V.A.C.® Therapy units and they have provided it,” said Professor Franco Bassetto, Full Professor of Plastic Surgery, University Hospital of Padova, Italy. “The Prevena™ System covers and protects the incision site and removes exudate and infectious material, which could save hospitals money by helping manage incisions in patients undergoing a variety of orthopedic, gynecological, cardiovascular and plastic surgery surgical procedures.”
The Prevena™ Incision Management System is the first and only powered negative pressure product designed specifically for surgical incision management. The Prevena™ System has been associated with a reduced risk of post-operative complications when compared to standard of care incision management in published studies covering a variety of incision types, including standard orthopedic, cardiothoracic and vascular procedures.
Two recently published independent studies on the Prevena™ System demonstrated favorable clinical outcomes in patients at risk for post-operative complications. This month, in the Journal of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery, Dr. Grauhan, et al reported statistically significant results of a prospective controlled trial of 150 obese patients undergoing sternotomy procedures.1 In the study, the control group treated with conventional sterile wound dressings experienced a 16% rate of infection versus 4% in the group treated with Prevena™ Therapy (p=0.0266). In the United States, the average cost of a sternal wound infection is $64,000.2
Similarly positive results were reported in the March edition of the Journal of Vascular Surgery. Dr. Matatov, et al performed a retrospective analysis of 115 groin incisions in patients requiring femoral cut-down procedures for vascular surgery.3 In this study, 30% of the patients in the control group (treated with either skin adhesives or absorbent dressings) experienced wound infections, while only 6% of the group treated with Prevena™ Therapy developed wound infections (p=0.0011). Surgical Site Infections (SSIs) of the groin can increase hospital stay by more than 9 days, costing facilities more than $20,000 per infection to treat; they also have an adverse impact on patient quality of life.
"The Prevena™ Peel & Place™ Dressing with a connector makes active incision management available to more patients by using the V.A.C.® Therapy Units many hospitals already have in place,” said Joe Woody, president & CEO, KCI. “This allows surgeons to decide whether their mobile patients need a complete Prevena™ System, perhaps for homecare, or whether hospital-based patients would benefit from a few days of Prevena™ Therapy delivered via a traditional V.A.C.® Therapy Unit.”
KCI estimates more than three million procedures are performed each year worldwide that could benefit from incision management with the Prevena™ System.
For more information about KCI and the Prevena™ Incision Management System, please visit www.KCI1.com.
About KCI
Kinetic Concepts, Inc. (KCI) is a leading global medical technology company devoted to understanding, developing and commercializing innovative, high-technology transformational healing solutions for customers and patients in more than 25 countries around the world. Headquartered in San Antonio, Texas, KCI is committed to advancing the science of healing and positively impacting patient care by developing customer-driven innovations to meet the evolving needs of healthcare professionals. Proprietary KCI negative pressure technologies have revolutionized the way in which caregivers treat a wide variety of wound types. The V.A.C.® Therapy System has been used on more than 7 million wounds worldwide. Additional information about KCI and its products is available at www.KCI1.com.
1 Grauhan O, Navasardyan A, Hofmann M, Müller P, Stein J, Hetzer R. Prevention of poststernotomy wound infections in obese patients by negative pressure wound therapy. J Thorac Cardiovasc Surg. 2013 May;145(5):1387-92.
2Market Research National Level Report. Data from the Marketscan Projected Inpatient, Hospital Drug and Medpar Databases: Calendar Year 2011. New York, NY: Thomson Reuters; 2013
3Matatov T, Reddy KN, Doucet LD, Zhao CX, Zhang WW. Experience with a new negative pressure incision management system in prevention of groin wound infection in vascular surgery patients. J Vasc Surg. 2013 Mar;57(3):791-5.
Contacts
KCI Corporate Communications
Mike Barger, 210-255-6824
mike.barger@kci1.com