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Toronto,
ON—A new device for wound debridement has helped
two people avoid disarticulation at the McGill University Health
Centre, Montreal.
“We had been looking at amputation, but the wound was almost
healed in six weeks,” Lincoln D’Souza, RN, BScN, a nurse
clinician, said of the first patient.
That patient had presented with a badly infected wound from which
a lot of dead tissue had to be removed. Surgical excision was not
an option, as the wound was arterially compromised.
Having recently been told about a Russian physician using the Söring
Sonoca 180 that uses 25-kHz ultrasound while using a stream of saline
as the ultrasound conductor onto the wound bed, Mr. D’Souza
contacted the Canadian distributers who contacted Health Canada.
Health Canada approved the use of the device on compassionate grounds.
The first patient responded so well to the treatment that Mr. D’Souza
and colleagues appealed to Health Canada a second time for wider
availability of the device. They were successful.
“I’ve used it on around 300 patients, and the average
time to debride a wound that is 20cm x 8cm to 10cm is between four
and 10 minutes,” he said.
The Sonoca 180 cavitates dead tissue. “It is actually foolproof
because it doesn’t affect any live tissue. So anything viable
remains in place.”
So far, only patients with arterial ulcers have reported pain during
treatment. A Canadian study is planned, said Mr. D’Souza at
the annual meeting of the Canadian Association of Wound Care.
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