Negative pressure wound therapy for patients with mediastinitis: A meta‐analysis

To evaluate clinical effects between conditional treatment and negative pressure wound therapy for mediastinal infection. Multiple databases were searched to identify relevant studies, and the articles that eventually satisfied the criteria were included. All the meta‐analyses were conducted with the Review Manager 5.2. To estimate the quality of each article, risk of bias table was performed. Finally, nine studies including 648 patients met the eligibility criteria. The negative pressure wound therapy (NPWT) group and the control group included 353 and 295 patients, respectively. The meta‐analysis showed no significant difference in operative time (RR = −6.13, 95%CI [−50.00, 37.74], P = .78; P for heterogeneity <.000001, I (2) = 100%). The length of hospital stay (MD = −3.07, 95%CI [−4.38, −1.77], P < .00001; P for heterogeneity = .99, I (2) = 0%), re‐infection (RR = 0.18, 100%CI [0.08, 0.40], P < .00001; P for heterogeneity = 0.48, I (2) = 0%), and mortality were significantly different between the two groups (RR = 0.27, 95%CI [0.12, 0.63], P of overall effect = .002). NPWT is a better therapy than conventional treatment for mediastinitis.