Background: Diabetic foot ulcers are a major cause of hospitalization which increases hospital stay because of multiple surgical procedures. The objective of this study is to compare Vacuum Assisted Closure and the conventional therapy for diabetic wounds with respect to time and wound healing and to prove the efficacy of one method over the other by appropriate statistical methods at the end of data collection. Methods: A retrospective randomized hospital based observational study of 40 patients was conducted at PSGIMSR, Coimbatore, Tamilnadu, India for a period of 24 months (January 2017– December 2018). All these 40 patients were studied and the data was statistically evaluated to determine the efficacy of vacuum assisted closure in healing of diabetic wounds and to compare it with the conventional method of treatment of diabetic wounds. The patients were divided into 2 groups, Group-A which consisted of 20 patients who received vacuum therapy (VAC), Group-B which consisted of 20 patients who received conventional dressings. Results: The patients on VAC had early appearance of granulation tissue (90% vs 60% at the end of Day 3), increased percentage of decrease in wound depth (53% vs 25% at the end of day 9) as compared to patients treated by conventional dressing. All patients developed granulation tissue by the end of Day 9. Conclusion: We thus conclude that VAC appears to be superior in the treatment of diabetic foot ulcers in terms of early appearance of granulation tissue and decrease in wound depth when compared to conventional dressings.

Keywords: VAC; DFU; Wagners classification.