A new technique using vacuum assisted closure (VAC) was succesfully applied to a 57 year old, male patient, with a dehisced infected sternotomy wound. After debridment and abscess drainage, a standard treatment with iodorform gauze strip was applied during 10 days, then it was substituted with by the application of negative pressure by controlled suction through a porous derssing, during 7 days. This novel technique, the first time applied in Latinamerica in this kind of lesion, has made possible to reduce healing time and hospital costs.
Vacuum assisted closure; hospital costs