In-hospital low-cost custom made VAC: Effective method for reducing infection in late presenting Open lower limb fractures in overburdened Indian hospitals.

Background: Open fractures are still associated with troublesome rates of infection. Thorough debridement irrigation and antibiotic cover are of paramount importance irrespective of the fixation method. VAC therapy is a well known method of accelerating the wound healing and decreasing the infection in non healing ulcers. The main drawback of VAC therapy is requirement of a special equipment and high cost. We in our hospital are using low cost custom made VAC therapy for non healing ulcers in lower socio-economic people and have seen extremely good results in wound healing and infection control.

Objective: To evaluate the role of pre operative low cost custom made VAC therapy as an adjunctive method of decreasing the rates of infection in late presenting lower limb open fractures.

Methods: A retrospective study of 26 open femur and tibia fractures for which low cost VAC therapy was used between January 2014 to January 2017.

Results: 2 out of 26 cases (7.4%) ended up with deep infection.

Conclusion: Pre operative in-hospital low cost custom made VAC therapy is a useful adjunctive method of reducing infection rates in late presenting open fractures.