Clinical effects of closed suction drainage on wound healing in patients with head and neck cancer.

This study was undertaken to determine what optimal levels of suction pressure were necessary to provide good drainage volume and obliteration of any dead space and also to determine the prevalence of clotting and complications secondary to various levels of suction pressure. The patients were grouped by their degree of nutritional depletion, prior radiation exposure, the types of surgical procedures undergone, and the results of tests using four levels of suction pressure. Three of the suction pressure values were obtained with a wall suction and one was obtained using a portable closed system. All wall suction pressure levels were certainly comparable with the portable unit. However, the portable unit provided continuous suction pressure when the patients were ambulatory and was not associated with any statistically significant increase in wound complications or equipment failure.