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30. Jahrestagung der Deutschsprachigen Arbeitsgemeinschaft für Verbrennungsbehandlung (DAV 2012)

11.01. - 14.01.2012, Nassfeld, Österreich

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The dermis graft: another autologous option for acute burn wound coverage

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  • corresponding author A.J. Lindford - Department of Burns and Plastic Surgery, Helsinki University Hospital, Helsinki, Finland
  • I.S. Kaartinen - Department of Burns and Plastic Surgery, Helsinki University Hospital, Helsinki, Finland
  • S. Virolainen - Department of Burns and Plastic Surgery, Helsinki University Hospital, Helsinki, Finland
  • H. Kuokkanen - Department of Burns and Plastic Surgery, Helsinki University Hospital, Helsinki, Finland
  • J. Vuola - Department of Burns and Plastic Surgery, Helsinki University Hospital, Helsinki, Finland

Deutschsprachige Arbeitsgemeinschaft für Verbrennungsbehandlung. 30. Jahrestagung der Deutschsprachigen Arbeitsgemeinschaft für Verbrennungsbehandlung (DAV 2012). Nassfeld, Österreich, 11.-14.01.2012. Düsseldorf: German Medical Science GMS Publishing House; 2012. Doc12dav13

doi: 10.3205/12dav13, urn:nbn:de:0183-12dav133

Published: August 7, 2012

© 2012 Lindford et al.
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/deed.en). You are free: to Share – to copy, distribute and transmit the work, provided the original author and source are credited.

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Background: early excision and definitive closure of the acute burn wound has been shown to improve survival. In major burns split-thickness skin autografts are the gold-standard in providing permanent acute wound closure. However in many patients this possibility is limited by restricted donor site avail-ability. Split-thickness dermal grafts harvested from the same donor site may provide an additional autologous option for permanent acute coverage and increase the number of potential autologous do-nor sites.

Materials and methods: From January to March 2011 we performed 16 dermis grafts (DG) in 9 consecutive patients (6 male, 3 female) with major (6 cases) and minor (3 cases) burns. Inclusion criteria consisted of any size of burn requiring excision in which the back was deemed an appropriate donor site. A control donor site consisted of an area of adjacent back skin from which a standard split-thickness skin graft was harvested. The mean age was 63 years (range 23 to 79 years). The mean initial burn size was 24% TBSA (range 2% to 40% TBSA). Five patients had significant co-morbidities. All DGs were harvested from the back. The size of the 15 DG recipient wound beds ranged from 20 to 180 cm², with mean and median sizes of 62 and 45 cm², respectively.

Results: Dermis graft take was complete in 15/16 cases. All grafts recorded >90% epithelialisation by 4 weeks and was complete in 11/15 cases at 4 weeks. The donor site of a dermis graft healed in the same time as the control standard skin graft donor site (mean 16 days).

Conclusion: Dermis grafts can provide another autologous option for permanent coverage in acute burn wounds.