Background: The standard treatment of necrotizing soft tissue infection (NSTI) includes extensive surgical debridement. Care of these debridements is challenging because of the size of the wound and associated pain. A potential solution is to leave the wounds open-to-air in the period after the initial debridement, allowing for regular inspection at bedside while reducing pain associated with frequent dressing changes. We evaluated the feasibility of this approach from a pain control standpoint.
Patients and methods: An audit of wound care modalities used on adult patients with NSTI admitted to a regional burn center between January 2009 and May 2014 was performed. Patients with at least one operation were included. Those opting for palliative care were excluded. Wound care was divided into four categories: open-to-air (OTA), negative-pressure wound therapy (NPWT), packing, and ointment. Wound care, pain score, pain medication use, and number of operations were collected for the first seven days after initial debridement. Pain management was assessed by pain scores. Analgesic use was measured and compared using conversion to morphine milligram equivalents (MME).
Results: Ninety-six patients were included; 67% were men with average age of 50 years, resulting in a total of 672 days of wound care evaluated: 69 days of OTA, 127 days of NPWT, 200 days of packing, and 126 days of ointment (150 days were undocumented). Average daily pain score from all wound care modalities was 2.00. Negative pressure wound therapy had the highest reported daily pain score (2.18, p = 0.034), whereas OTA had the lowest pain score (1.63, p < 0.05). Mortality was lower in the OTA cohort but was not statistically significant; there were no other differences in long-term outcome.
Conclusion: Leaving wounds OTA is a safe and viable option in the immediate post-debridement period of NSTI to reduce pain, while permitting frequent re-evaluation for quick recognition of disease progression and repeat operative debridement if necessary.
Keywords: necrotizing fasciitis; necrotizing soft tissue infection; open wound.