KCI IS GOING TO REPLACE THE VAC!!!!!!!

Yes, I do know the difference! The difference is that wounds heal by moist wound healing. Meaning that hydrophillic dressings are preferred over hydrophobic. Why would anyone put a dry, abrasive foam sponge in a wound? Any wound clinician knows that the slimy appearance to the wound is biofilm, and can occur with any chronic wound, not just because of gauze. I think KCI has brainwashed people to think that the foam is the magic ingredient, which isn't the case. If I were the patient, I would much rather have moist gauze applying negative pressure than dry foam...especially when it's time for dressing removal!!!!!

WOW.....we really do have idiots posting here. Now, being a KCI Employee, I love the product and am not fan of the company. You all know what I mean. We are a cog in the wheel. Burn and churn.

But if you truly work in the wound care industry, working along side the clinitian, in the clinic with the patients you know the foam really is the magic ingredient to NPWT. It heals. The evidence appears before your eyes. The clinitians know it, the competitors know it and we do too. To deny this means you are stupid, blind or totally brainwashed and drugged. For those patients that may heal anyway on their own from their own biological responses....I am sure gauze works fine. But for a non-healing, chronic wound....the only hope is KCI WoundVAC! To a non-healing chronic wound-a gauze based npwt is a recipe for disaster and all the clinitians know it too. There is a place for gazue based NPWT in the cycle of care. But not to granulate. Not to profuse, remove exudates etc....

We also know we are a pain in the ass to work with. We know our days are numbered as that patent is just about expired and we know that we need to pull it together. We are trying but cannot figure out how to make it work and be customer friendly.

Good news-We are superior
Bad news-we are such a pain in the ass, no one wants to fool with us.

 

Everyone who read this is all the more stupid for reading this. Does KCI do drug testing?

 

As a board certified internist with extensive knowledge and experience in wound healing, as well as a patient with a chronic wound that developed after a blown skin graft on my neck, I feel I can provide unbiased insight a to the guaze vs. sponge debate in NPWT. After the blown graft was lost and left me with 11 X 8 cm mildly infected neck wound, I was placed on KCI's wound-VAC in the hospital, and within several days of VAC therapy achieved significant improvement of the wound and surrounding tissue. The edema had subsided, circulation in the wound bed improved, and granulation tissue had formed.

After several days, the facility in which I was staying asked if I would agree to try a different NPWT therapy device that was gauze based. Since the wound was now clean and mostly granulated, and the drainage was only about 15 cc/day I was willing to give the guaze based NPWT device a try. It used the Kerlex so-called anti-microbial super-gauze as the wound filler instead of a sponge.

For the first 8 hours, my impression was that the gauze performed similarily to KCI's sponge. But after that, the gauze started to deteriorate and even seemed to disintergate, so by the end of 24 hours it was literally a glob of pus-laden rag without any of the properties of fresh gauze. After 8 hours its ability to maintain the 80 mm pressure setting gradually decreased to near 0 and its ability to effectuate adequate drain from the wound was virtually gone. Thus, after 24 hours I had essentially a dirty pus-laden dish rag sitting in the wound that was detrimental to wound healing. The granulations as well as the surrouding skin were getting macerated due to the gauze's inability to adequately effectuate wound drainage after 24 hours. Common sense should tell you that gauze sitting in drainage material and subjected to negative pressure would not maintain its properties and even look like gauze anymore after a number of hours.

Because I would need to continue with a NPWT device at home, and due to the high cost of the KCI VAC therapy system, I was truly hoping that the less expensive gauze based system would provide comparable results. As it turns out, I would not prescibe nor recommend a gauze based system to any patient.

Since Smith and Nephews now has home unit which uses a sponse similar to KCI's, I decided to check out its monthly cost since I had expected it to be less expensive that KCI's. Turns out that the cost of S and N's unit and supplies would cost on average about $1000 more per month than KCI's system, which I consider to be the gold standard of NPWT devices at least for now. So I am now using the KCI Acti-VAC at home and am happy with the results, as within a matter of weeks the wound size has decreased to 6.5 X 2.5 cm.

Bottom line is that I would not use nor prescribe a guaze based NPWT device for myself or my patients under any circumstances.

 

Yeah right, you are a doctor! The difference in cost is the deciding factor for you. And your mad math skills show it costs $1000 a month more per month. Event hough most home MCO's only pay $900 to begin with. And to believe a doctor comes to this ignorant site to tout the benefits of one suction pump over another is ludicrous. You are not a doc, you are just another moron. I however do believe your body is leaking pus.

 

My "granny", son, daughter or anyone would be on Prospera!

 

I want my son to use your daughter!

 

What about the Convatec biodome dressings? How are these compared to gauze and foam

 

Diiferent to use, requires thought, but results are good

 

Requires Thought ????? That leaves out about 99% of KCI reps

 

freak

 

That shows how little you know about wound healing!!! I have been a wound care specialist for years and have seen the results of both!!!! If I had a wound, I would want a KCI Vac!!!! Science doesn't lie!!!! I have literally saved lives and limbs with the KCI Vac!!!! Anyone can study wound healing and THINK they know what is best, but until you practice it for years and you have the actual hands on experience...you don't have any credibility!!!!!!

 

We are going o replace the 3M drape with a updated version of the glad trash bag.

 

No your talking, that's the spirt.

 

No, they are testing the press and seal wrap from Glad. It will make application a lot easier.

 

Let me rephrase that for you...if I was a patient, I'd want either want KCI, S&N, or ITI. All 3 are the same, but actually ITI has a portable version of the VAC Instill. So if I was at home, I'd take that because constant saline irrigation has been shown (by KCI and ITI) to improve granulation quality and decrease pain during dressing removal Believe or not KCI peeps, your product is slowly (actually pretty fast now that you lost the patent) becoming a commodity.

While working for KCI, I always knew me having a job tomorrow morning was dependent on one silly patent that already belongs to public domain. Well, in October of 2010, that nightmare became reality. Honestly, collect a paycheck until the day comes, but that day for all of you old friends in getting closer. Don't believe me? Take a look at how much of the salesforce are no Associate Account Executives compared to the beginning of last year!

 

I call Bull S$%T on the last post. I was just in a nursing home the other day and heard someone talking about how much the KCI VAC is than the others. Then someone came along and gave her, her meds.

 

My bad, not getting the punch line correct. " talking about how much BETTER the KCI"
Sorry, but you get the Joke. Did it again, Get it? I told a Joke about how the joke KCI suction is better than other suction.

I kill myself

 

The problem with the Vac in that it lower the oxygen level in the wound too much. Wounds closed with Vacs are more prone to re-open in the future. Vacs should not be used to "total healing". Once the wound is started towards healing, other products should be used to finish the final healing process.

 

Got science?

 

Where KCI earns it's $ is not (glorified) suction but 24/7 knowhow and usefull disposables for suction. Try to live with it. There are more than 40 companies trying to sell suction and fail miserably. There are companies coming into the market with usefull disposables for suction. There is where KCI angel investers fear to tread.