Incisional Negative Pressure Therapy to Prevent Animal Induced Wound Infection

Animal injuries are a significant public health issue, with the most common being bites or scratches from cats and dogs. Every year, over 40 million people in China are bitten or scratched by cats and dogs, which can lead to wound infections and even systemic complications, with infection rates ranging from 10% to 80%. However, there is still no better way to reduce wound infection rates in current clinical studies and guidelines.

Incisional negative pressure wound therapy (iNPWT) is a new wound treatment technology developed in recent years. It creates a negative pressure environment on sutured or closed wounds, helps to fix the edges of the incision together, reduce lateral tension on the wound, stimulate blood perfusion at the edge of the wound, remove fluid from the wound, and act as an external pollution barrier. INPWT has been widely used for postoperative wound healing in surgery, but there is currently a lack of effective clinical trials on its ability to prevent wound infections caused by animal injuries and promote wound healing.

This study aims to apply iNPWT technology to the wounds of patients with rabies grade III exposure who underwent primary suturing, and compare it with wounds covered with ordinary gauze after previous primary suturing to determine whether it can help reduce postoperative incision infection rates and promote wound healing. This will provide high-quality clinical evidence for the widespread use of wound management in rabies grade III exposure patients in the future.