The use of negative pressure therapy for the treatment of gunshot wounds in a limited resource setting in eastern part of the Democratic Republic of Congo: Case series

Abstract

Key Clinical Message The use of negative pressure therapy in the management of gunshot wound have a favorable outcome, NPT is easy to build, accelerates wound budding, reduces patient's stay in hospital and its low cost. It showed reassuring results in the management of wound with soft tissue lost, comparatively to other dressing. Abstract Wounds due to gunshot injuries are common in east of Republic Democratic of Congo and its management should be well known by surgeons and other health practitioners. Reconstruction is possible with simple surgeries using skin grafts and negative pressure therapy (NPT). In this study, we present our results of wounds treatment after gunshot injury with a simple non‐surgical procedure using NPT. We present four patients with soft tissue losses caused by gunshot injury. These patients underwent an average of four to eight sessions of vacuum dressing, the length of hospital stay was decrease and soft tissue losses were reconstructed using at the end skin grafts.

Keywords

• Bukavu
• gunshot wounds
• infection
• vacuum