Acoustic pressure wound therapy in the treatment of a vasculopathy-associated digital ulcer: a case study.

Digital vasculopathy and subsequent digital ulceration are common and painful complications of limited cutaneous systemic sclerosis. Although the use of hydrocolloid occlusive dressings has been found to reduce pain, frequently required surgical or chemical debridement can be intensely painful in such ulcers. Acoustic pressure wound therapy is a noncontact, low-frequency ultrasound therapy used for painless debridement in a variety of acute and chronic wounds. It was administered to treat an intensely painful, methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus-infected finger ulcer resulting from peripheral, bilateral vasculopathy in a 68-year-old man with a history of three prior fingertip amputations secondary to limited cutaneous systemic sclerosis-associated digital vasculopathy. At treatment initiation, 90% of the 11 cm2 wound was covered with firmly adherent fibrin slough. Acoustic pressure wound therapy was performed three times weekly for 5 minutes per treatment and the wound was covered with a hydrocolloid occlusive dressings. Pain scores decreased from 10 (visual analog scale, 0 = none, 10 = extreme) at the beginning of treatment to 0 at the week 8 assessment and his analgesics were discontinued. After 10 weeks (31 acoustic pressure wound therapy treatments), the wound was completely closed.