Introduction: Currently, there are no international standardized guidelines or recommendations to guide the clinical decision-making process on when to initiate various negative pressure wound therapy (NPWT) systems for acute and chronic wounds. Specifically, no established recommendations or guidance exists regarding the type of NPWT system to use, traditional (tNPWT) or single-use (sNPWT), and how to transition between the 2 systems.
Methods: An expert panel was convened to (1) provide recommendations to clinicians on when to consider NPWT use in acute and chronic wound management and (2) develop a practical decision-making tool to guide on the appropriateness of the different NPWT modalities (tNPWT or sNPWT) and when they should be utilized.
Results: The panel made recommendations and designed a clinical decision-making tool to aid the consideration for initiating NPWT and the optimal system to be utilized based on (1) therapeutic goals, (2) wound-related factors, (3) patient satisfaction and quality of life, (4) care setting-related factors, (5) economic-related factors, and (6) NPWT system-related factors.
Conclusions: The panel recommendations took into consideration the clinical, operational, and financial factors in the clinical decision-making process of NPWT use to enable optimal patient and health care system outcomes.