Incisional dressings aim to prevent contamination of an incisional wound and protect against skin irritation. Surgeons use incisional negative pressure wound therapy (iNPWT) to manage incisional wounds. This study compares a new dressing designed for use with iNPWT that aims to improve comfort, tolerability, and dressing survivability over the standard of care for iNPWT. Further, no evidence exists that shows NPWT reduces the bacterial burden on the skin. This study will compare the incidence of skin irritation, dressing damage or lift, and changes in bacteria flora on healthy volunteer skin.
The study compares the DeRoyal Negative Pressure Wound Therapy Incisional Dressing used with the DeRoyal Disposable NPWT device (experimental) to the market leader NPWT Incision Dressing system (control) over seven days to compare skin flora rebound, dressing degradation, skin irritation, and overall user experience. The protocol simulates the preparation of both knees for total knee replacement surgery (Day 0). After prepping the knee (shaving and chlorohexidine gluconate scrub), research personnel will swab the knee cap for an initial bioburden assessment. One knee is randomized to receive the experimental intervention, and the other knee receives the control intervention. Participants will wear both dressings for seven days documenting interruptions in the NPWT for activities of daily living, system-related discomfort, self-assessment of dressing damage, and tolerance for each system. Participants return to the clinic after seven days. First, research personnel will document each dressing's condition with photography and an assessment scale. The research staff will remove dressings under aseptic conditions, photograph each knee, and swab each for bioburden analysis. A blinded researcher will assess each knee for skin redness, irritation, blistering, or other skin adverse event and overall appearance using an adapted FDA scale for skin irritation. The participant's participation in the trial ends at this point. The resulting data will be analyzed using statistical methods to inform on differences in bioburden present under each dressing, the incidence of skin irritation or other adverse events, dressing survivability, discomfort differences, and tolerance of each system.
Study Type
INTERVENTIONAL
Allocation
RANDOMIZED
Purpose
PREVENTION
Masking
DOUBLE
Enrollment
16
A sponsor incisional dressing placed on the knee and connected to a sponsor disposable negative pressure therapy device
The control incisional negative pressure wound therapy system represents the standard of care system and market leader. It consists of a disposable negative pressure therapy device and incisional dressing.
Lincoln Memorial University; Cedar Bluff Campus
Knoxville, Tennessee, United States
Change in Skin Irritation Score
Skin assessment is performed utilizing the Federal Drug Administration's Combined Evaluation of Skin Irritation and Sensitization utilized by the FDA for assessing topical delivery systems (https://www.fda.gov/media/117569/download). The assessments include photographs of the skin to document any noticeable differences between the two interventions visually. The dermal response score has eight levels between 0 and 7: 0:No evidence of irritation and 7: Strong reaction spreading beyond the dressing. Refer to the linked document for the entire scale The Other Effects Score (if present) has six characteristics associated with a numerical value: A(0): Slightly glazed appearance, B(1): Markedly glazed appearance, C(2): Glazing with peeling \& cracking, F(3): Glazing with fissures, G(3): Film of dried serous exudates covering all or part of the dressing site, H(3): Small petechial erosions and scabs. The sum of the two scores represents the total irritation score.
Time frame: Day 1 (Baseline) and Day 7
Change in skin flora bioburden
Sterile skin swabs will be performed on approximately a 1 by 1 inch area of the knee cap on day 1 after skin prep and day 7 after removal of the dressings. Swabs will undergo bioburden testing to recover any organisms present on the skin. Day 0 assessments confirms the efficacy of the skin preparation procedure and day 7 measurements reflect rebound of skin flora under the two interventions.
Time frame: Performed Day 1 (Baseline) and Day 7
Dressing Discomfort Assessment
Healthy volunteer self assessment using a visual analogue scale to rate pain/discomfort experienced during study. Volunteers will mark on a 10 cm line their assessment of discomfort. No pain or discomfort indicated by a score of 0. Extreme pain or discomfort indicated by a score of 10.
Time frame: Assessment performed once a day for 7 days by participant
Intervention Tolerance Assessment
Healthy volunteer self assessment using a visual analogue scale to rate tolerance of each intervention during the study. Tolerance includes assessment of sound and impact on daily life. Volunteers will mark on a 10 cm line their assessment of discomfort. A score of 0 indicates intervention completely tolerable, does not interfere with daily living. A score of 10 indicates intervention completely intolerable, makes daily living impossible.
Time frame: Assessment performed once a day for 7 days by participant
Change in Dressing Lift Incidence (Participant Assessment)
Calculate incidence rate of any dressing lift (lift or rolling) that occurs with each dressing
Time frame: Assessment performed once a day by participant for Days 1 - 6. Clinician performs assessment at Day 7
Change in Dressing Lift Incidence (Clinician Assessment)
Calculate incidence rate of any dressing lift (lift or rolling) that occurs with each dressing
Time frame: Clinician performs assessment at Day 7
Change in Dressing Lift Percentage (Participant Assessment)
The participant or clinician research uses a dressing diagram to indicate dressing lift or damage. Final analysis will calculate the percent area where damage occurred. A separate photograph of the dressing will confirm final assessment.
Time frame: Assessment performed once a day by participant for Days 1 - 6.
Change in Dressing Lift Percentage (Clinician Assessment)
The participant or clinician research uses a dressing diagram to indicate dressing lift or damage. Final analysis will calculate the percent area where damage occurred. A separate photograph of the dressing will confirm final assessment.
Time frame: Clinician performs assessment at Day 7
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