HEALING OF REFRACTORY STAGE-III AND STAGE-IV PRESSURE ULCERS BY A NEWELECTRICAL-STIMULATION DEVICE

A prospective, baseline-controlled trial of electrical stimulation for treating 61 Stage III and IV pressure ulcers was undertaken at three investigational centers. Patients went through a four-week Pretreatmen t (PT) phase, with documented standard care, including maintaining a m oist wound environment, turning to relieve pressure, pressure-relief b eds or mattresses, infection control, and nutritional support. Wounds that showed signs of healing in response to standard care were elimina ted. Refractory wounds that did not improve or deteriorated during the PT phase were allowed to go on to treatment (T) phase. Monophasic pul sed electrical current having 140 Usec pulse duration, 35 mA peak curr ent, 128 pulses per sec was delivered continuously for 30 minutes twic e daily. During the T phase, the ancillary care was kept the same as d uring the PT phase. Improvement was defined as a change of at least on e wound stage or two wound characters. Of 61 ulcers analyzed, 60.7% im proved after only two weeks of treatment (p <0.000001), 80.4% after fo ur weeks, and 82.0% by their last week of treatment (mean 7.3 weeks, r ange 2-26). Most ulcers improved more than the minimum requirement, an d the majority reached advanced degrees of healing. Complete healing w as achieved in 23% of the ulcers. There were no safety problems. We co ncluded that as used in this study, electrical stimulation can signifi cantly enhance the healing of indolent pressure ulcers.