Table 1 Eligibility criteria for studies included

Population

• Patients with wounds with intended secondary healing

• Any healthcare setting

Study intervention

• Negative pressure wound therapy

o No restrictions with regard to the use of commercial and/or custom-made devices

o Type of further treatment, in particular indication for surgical wound closure, comparable to control intervention

Control intervention

• Standard wound therapy

o Type of further treatment, in particular indication for surgical wound closure, comparable to study intervention

Patient-relevant outcomes

• Mortality

• Wound closure

• Adverse events

• Amputation

• Pain

• Length of hospital stay and/or readmission to the hospital

• Health-related quality of life

• Physical function

• Dependence on outside help or need for care

Study design

• Randomised controlled trials

o Data of studies with fewer than 10 patients were excluded from the assessment. For transparency reasons those studies meeting the other eligibility criteria were included in the initial pool of relevant studies.

Publication type

• Availability of a full-text document (e.g. journal article or clinical study report, CSR)

• No restrictions applied for the date of publication

Timing

• No restrictions

Language of publication

• Any language if English titles and abstracts were available and indicated potential relevance