Patent ID: 7699831
Filing Date: 2010-04-20
Classification: A61M

Abstract:
1. A method comprising creating percutaneous access into a wound defined by an interior dead space having a volume enclosed between interior tissue surfaces consisting of muscle, connective, or skin tissue containing blood vessels that have been separated by surgery or trauma within a body beneath substantially intact skin, and in which extracellular blood and serous fluid escaping from the blood vessels can accumulate to form a seroma, providing a wound drain assembly comprising a wound drainage structure sized and configured for placement entirely within the interior dead space, the wound drainage structure comprising a material capable of being absorbed by the body and being sized and configured to absorb extracellular blood and serous fluid in the interior dead space on substantially all sides of the material, and tubing releasably coupled to the wound drainage structure being sized and configured to be coupled to a source of negative pressure outside the body to convey negative pressure into the wound drainage structure for application internally throughout the interior dead space, placing the wound drainage structure entirely within the interior dead space, extending the tubing from the interior dead space through the percutaneous access to a location outside the body, coupling the tubing to a source of negative pressure outside the body, operating the source of negative pressure to convey negative pressure into the wound drainage structure for application internally throughout the interior dead space, in response to the applied negative pressure, conveying extracellular blood and serous fluid absorbed by the material from the interior dead space to decrease the volume of the dead space and subsequent seroma formation, in response to the applied negative pressure, drawing together the separated interior tissue surfaces to promote adherence of the tissue surfaces and a normal wound healing process, removing the tubing from the wound drain structure, and allowing the wound drainage structure to be absorbed by the body.