Burn Treatment

Skin Graft

A skin graft is a section of skin that is sliced from one body part and patched into another traumatized area that is lacking sufficient skin. During this procedure, a patient is sedated and put under general anesthesia so that they are unconscious and unable to feel pain. Using an instrument called a dermatome, healthy skin is cut from the patient's body. The skin sample, known as a split-thickness skin graft, includes a piece of the outer layer of skin (epidermis) and the layer beneath that (dermis).

The donor site can be any location of the body, but for cosmetic reasons, it is usually a part that is concealed by clothing (e.g., buttock, inner thigh). The area selected to be the donor should also be based on color coordination, meaning the tone of the donor skin should be close to identical to the area in need of the graft. The new skin is meticulously spread across the exposed section and kept in position by a padded dressing, staples, or light stitching. The raw donor site is protected by a sterile dressing for three to five days to ward off infection.

Patients in need of more tissue may require a full-thickness graft, which incorporates all three layers of skin. In this intricate of a procedure, a flap of skin with its muscles and blood vessels intact, is reassigned to the graft site. Body parts frequently used for an operation of this magnitude include the back and abdominal wall. Full-thickness grafts are administered in patients with massive tissue loss (e.g., open fracture of the lower leg).

Reasons for a skin graft

Candidates for a skin graft may include people who:

• Are severely wounded (e.g., combat victims).
• Have third degree burns.
• Are undergoing surgery that requires skin grafting to heal properly.
• Have an area of infection in which there has been full-fledged skin loss.
• Are undergoing cosmetic or reconstructive surgery.

Prognosis and recovery

Blood supply begins reaching the skin graft in no more than 36 hours following surgery. The skin graft success rate is highly successful, but sometimes they are rejected, and an alternate graft is needed for replacement. A doctor should always inspect the graft for proper circulation in the days after the operation.

By and large, recovery time after a split-thickness skin graft is usually fairly speedy unless the patient is a severe burn victim. The skin graft should not be exposed to any sort of trauma or stretching for two or three weeks. Depending on where the graft is situated, the physician may instruct the patient to keep a dressing on it for a week or two. Also, stay away from any strenuous activity that has the potential to stretch or injure the graft for three to four weeks. Some skin graft recipients may have to enroll in physical therapy to rehabilitate the area. As can be expected, a full-thickness skin graft needs more time to recover. These patients often require a hospital stay between one and two weeks before they are allowed to go home at all.