Skip to main content
OpenTrials
Completed

NCT Number: NCT01480362

Treatment Study of Negative Pressure Wound Therapy for Diabetic Foot Wounds

On behalf of a consortium of 19 health insurance companies the Institute for Research in Operative Medicine as part of the University of Witten / Herdecke gGmbH is planning and conducting a clinical study evaluating the efficacy and effectiveness of negative pressure wound therapy in the treatment of wound healing disorders of the foot, which are caused by diabetes mellitus.

This german multicenter study is due to evaluate whether the negative pressure wound therapy or the control therapy (standard wound therapy following the guidelines) is superior.

Patients will be randomly assigned to the two study arms. Both patients and the treatment staff know about the specific allocation to the negative pressure wound therapy or standard wound therapy arm.

A photo documentation and a computer-based evaluation of the wound images will be performed. This is done centrally by independent examiners, who don't know neither the patient nor the treatment assignment.

It is believed that the application of the negative pressure wound therapy systems compared to standard therapy of diabetic foot wounds will lead more frequent and more rapid to the achievement of complete wound closure and that the use of negative pressure wound therapy is an effective and safe therapy option for the treatment of diabetic foot wounds in inpatient and outpatient care.

Patient´s to be included into the study should have either a chronic diabetic foot wound existing longer than 4 weeks whereas dead tissue components must be completely removed by the doctor or a wound after amputation of foot parts.

The study treatment may have already started in the hospital if applicable. The further wound treatment will be mainly performed within outpatient care. Study Participants will return to the study centre for regular study visits or even for wound treatment.

The comparison of the outcomes of both study arms will give valuable information about the efficacy of negative pressure wound therapy in inpatient as well as outpatient care. These results should be provided until the end of 2016 as a basis for the decision of the Federal Joint Committee to answer the question if the negative pressure wound therapy can be approved as a standard service for reimbursement by health insurance companies.

Completed

Looking for future studies?

Notify Me

Key information

Age range

18 year and older

Sex eligibility

All sexes

Study type

Interventional

Phase

Not applicable

Primary location

Diabetes Klinik GmbH & Co KG, Bad Mergentheim, Germany

Loading trial locations.

About this study

This study project as part of a European tender has the aim to prove efficacy and effectiveness of negative pressure wound therapy in the management of patients with chronic diabetic foot wounds. The tasks within the study project have been assigned to three contractors / institutions.

On behalf of a consortium of 19 health insurance companies with a central contact consisting of the "AOK-Bundesverband GbR", "Verband der Ersatzkassen e.V." (vdek) and the "Knappschaft" these contractors are responsible for conducting the trial.

The Institute for Research in Operative Medicine (IFOM) as part of the University of Witten / Herdecke gGmbH is responsible for the planning, implementation, analysis and publication of the study.

The Private University of Witten / Herdecke takes over the sponsorship of the study project. The duties and responsibilities of the sponsor are transferred to the staff of the Institute for Research in Operative Medicine of University of Witten / Herdecke. The financial support of the clinical study is provided by the manufacturers of the negative pressure wound therapy systems. The task of payment processing and the contractual provisions is taken over by a management company "Gesundheitsforen Leipzig".

Therapy systems used within the treatment arm of the study will be provided by two manufacturers Kinetic Concepts Incorporated (KCI) and Smith & Nephew Inc. All used treatment systems bear the CE mark and will be used within normal conditions of clinical routine and according to manufacturer's instructions.

This research project is performed because of a decision of the Federal Joint Committee Germany, which states that negative pressure wound therapy can´t be accepted as a standard therapy with full reimbursement by the health insurance companies in Germany. This decision is based on the rapid report and the final report of the Institute for Quality and Efficiency in Health Care, which showed through systematic reviews and meta-analysis of previous study projects that an insufficient state evidence regarding the use of negative pressure wound therapy for the treatment of acute and chronic wounds is existing.

This study evaluates the treatment outcome of the application of a technical medical device, which is based on the principle of negative pressure wound therapy (treatment group 1: Intervention Group) in comparison to standard wound therapy (treatment group 2: Control group) in the treatment of chronic foot wounds after adequate (debridement of avital tissue) wound preparation or amputation wounds resulting from a scheduled amputation below the ankle (talocrural articulation), which are caused in the context of a diabetic foot syndrome.

The clinical trial is designed as a national, multicenter, prospective, randomized controlled superiority study. A blinded evaluation of wound photographs will be performed.

Patients will be randomized 1:1 to the treatment arm: negative pressure wound therapy and the control arm: standard wound therapy.

Patients will be stratified according to assignment to the participating institution (hospital) and by Wagner-Armstrong Stadium.

The inclusion and exclusion criteria are based on the presence of a diagnosis of a diabetic foot wound, the regulatory requirements to the participants in a clinical study and the examination and treatment according to current treatment regulations, evidence-based guidelines and the specifications of the manufacturers of the medical devices.

Only patients meeting all inclusion criteria and no exclusion criterion are allowed to be included into the trial.

The aim of this study is to compare the clinical, safety and economic results of both treatment arms.

The primary endpoints to evaluate the efficacy of negative pressure wound therapy in the treatment of chronic foot wounds caused by a diabetic foot syndrome are both the number of complete wound closure within the maximum treatment period (measured in days) as well as the time until complete wound closure. Complete wound closure should be achieved within the maximum study treatment period of 16 weeks.

In addition, secondary clinical endpoints and safety endpoints, patient-reported outcome endpoints and health economic endpoints are evaluated.

The clinical examination includes parameters that can be used for the analysis of resource use in the inpatient and outpatient care. This includes a comparative analysis of parameters of direct and indirect resource use.

Primarily the perspective of the Statutory Health Insurance is considered. As a secondary perspective the view of society was selected.

Sample size calculation was performed considering results of existing trials, which revealed that a number n = 324 patients must be included in the study in order to carry out the analysis of the primary endpoint "Closure rate".

In due consideration of screening failures, discontinuation of therapy of any cause and losses to Follow-Up a screening of a total of 464 patients must be performed to provide the calculated sample size.The primary efficacy analysis is performed using the intention-to-treat group.

Study results will be provided until the end of 2015 to contribute to the final decision of the Federal Joint Committee Germany regarding the general admission of negative pressure wound therapy as a standard of performance within both medical sectors.

Who can participate

Healthy volunteers accepted: No

Only the study team can determine whether someone qualifies for participation.

Inclusion criteria

  • Presence of diabetes mellitus
  • Presence of a foot wound (chronic wounds; amputation wounds) Wagner stage 2-4
  • Existence of the foot wound for at least 4 weeks
  • Signed informed consent form
  • Patient's eligibility of NPWT in the opinion of the treating physician

Exclusion criteria

  • Age <18 years
  • Non-Compliance
  • Pregnancy
  • Allergies regarding the release of substances from components of each treatment arm
  • Severe anemia, wich was not caused by an infection
  • Simultaneous participation of patients in another interventional study / previous participation in the same study
  • Use of NPWT systems to the study-related foot lesion within a period of 6 weeks prior to study inclusion
  • Presence of necrotic tissue with eschar, which can not be removed
  • Untreated osteitis or osteomyelitis
  • Not examined / unexplored fistula
  • Malignancy of the wound
  • Exposed: nerves, blood vessels, anastomotic site
  • ambulant NPWT of patients receiving anticoagulants (especially heparinization or marcumar therapy) or with otherwise highly impaired clotting function, which have a risk of circulatory relevant bleeding

Treatment and study plan

Negative pressure wound therapy

Device

Used therapy systems:

KCI. V.A.C. Freedom; Acti V.A.C.; INFO V.A.C. to be used with the V.A.C. Granufoam (black), V.A.C. Granufoam Silver and V.A.C. WhiteFoam Smith & Nephew: Renasys GO and Renasys EZ Plus to be used with the Renassys-F/P and Renassys-G Use of the medical devices and applicable consumption items according to manufacturers guidelines and FDA regulations.

Other names: Vacuum assisted closure, Vacuum assisted wound closure

Standard Wound Therapy

Other

Standard wound therapy according to current evidence-based guideline(basic and advanced methods of wound treatment)

Other names: Standard Conventional Wound Therapy

Primary outcomes

  1. Number of achieved and confirmed wound closures within the maximum study treatment time

    Time frame: 16 weeks

    Complete wound closure is defined as 100% epithelialization; no need for drainage, no need for supportive therapy or a means of assistance and absence of suture material. Wound closure must sustain at least for a period of 14 days and needs to be confirmed within a separate study visit 14 days after the first diagnosis of wound closure.

  2. Time until wound closure within the maximum study treatment time

    Time frame: 16 weeks

    Complete wound closure is defined as 100% epithelialization; no need for drainage, no need for supportive therapy or a means of assistance and absence of suture material. Wound closure must sustain at least for a period of 14 days and needs to be confirmed within a separate study visit 14 days after the first diagnosis of wound closure.

Secondary outcomes

  1. Time until optimal wound bed preparation

    Time frame: 16 weeks

    Time until optimal preparation of the wound bed for further therapy (granulation of at least 95%)

  2. Time until wound closure within the observation period

    Time frame: 6 months

    Time to reach a complete wound closure within the observation period of 6 months

  3. Recurrences

    Time frame: 6 months

    Recurrences within the observation period of 6 months after complete and confirmed wound closure

  4. Amputations

    Time frame: 16 weeks

    Appearance and dimension of amputations

  5. Wound size

    Time frame: 16 weeks

    Wound size over time

  6. Wound tissue qualities

    Time frame: 16 weeks

    Proportion of wound tissue qualities over time

  7. Number of complete wound closures within the observation period

    Time frame: 6 months

    Number of complete wound closures achieved within the observation period of 6 months

  8. Wound-related pain (Numeric Rating Scale)

    Time frame: 16 weeks

    Patient's pain measured with a numeric Rating scale at each study visit

  9. Quality of Life questionaire (EQ-5D)

    Time frame: 6 months

    EQ-5D at inclusion, end of maximum treatment time or end of therapy, Follow-Up after 6 months

  10. Direct costs

    Time frame: within a maximum treatment time of 16 weeks or until end of therapy

    direct medical resource use and costs: hospitalization, outpatient contact with study centre and other providers, reimbursable drugs, medical sundries, adjuvants, reimbursable services direct non-medical resource use and costs: services, travel costs, expenditure of time for patients, expenditure of time for lay care

  11. Indirect costs

    Time frame: within a maximum treatment time of 16 weeks or until end of therapy

    disability, disability pension, premature death

  12. Serious adverse events

    Time frame: 6 months

    All adverse events that result in death, are life-threatening, require inpatient hospitalization or causes prolongation of existing hospitalization, result in persistent or significant disability/incapacity, are a congenital anomaly/birth defect, or require intervention to prevent permanent impairment or damage.

  13. Adverse Events

    Time frame: 16 weeks

    wound specific and device specific adverse events within the maximum study treatment time

Sponsors and collaborators

Lead sponsor

University of Witten/Herdecke

Other

Collaborators

  • Kinetic Concepts, Inc.
  • Smith & Nephew Wound Management Inc

Registry information

Official study title

Randomized, Controlled Clinical Trial Evaluating the Efficacy and Clinical Effectiveness of Negative Pressure Wound Therapy for the Treatment of Diabetic Foot Wounds When Compared to Standard Wound Therapy

Acronym: DiaFu

Important dates

Study start
2011
Primary completion
2015
Study completion
2015
First posted
Nov 28, 2011
Registry last updated
May 5, 2020

OpenTrials presents study information sourced from ClinicalTrials.gov. The official registry record should be consulted for the latest information.

View the official ClinicalTrials.gov record (opens in a new tab)

This listing is for discovery and informational purposes only. It is not medical advice, does not guarantee that a study is recruiting, and does not determine eligibility. Contact the study team and a qualified healthcare professional when considering participation.

Published trials that share one or more normalized conditions with this study.