Debridement of both acute and chronic wounds utilizing various methods is a well accepted treatment for wound healing. Surgical debridement is employed when a wound has a large amount of necrotic tissue or has any evidence of overt infection or purulence. Often surgical consultation and subsequent surgical debridement is not undertaken initially, secondary to pain of surgical debridement or the treatment plan does not include it. Surgical debridement can also cause excessive blood loss and by design it has to remove a rim of “good” tissue to get down to the area for adequate healing. It can also take an excessive amount of time. The High-Pressure Saline Liquefaction Hydrosurgery System* is a new form of debridement that uses a jet of saline, which at maximum setting, can deliver a jet as high as 15,000 psi at a speed of 680 miles an hour. We present a series of three cases utilizing high-pressure saline liquefaction debridement*. In these three cases Hydrosurgery System allows for rapid debridement with minimal blood loss, ability to debride just down to good tissue without removing an excess, the uncovering of a deeper staged pressure ulcer, ability to debride right up to bone, which is difficult to perform with traditional sharp debridement with a knife and it also allows for removal of fine foreign body such as powder burns. We feel these three cases illustrate several advantages over traditional surgical debridement, such that it should be utilized early on in the treatment plan of most wounds.

*Versajet Hydrosurgery System (Smith & Nephew Inc., Largo, Fl.)