The Unna "cap" as a scalp donor site dressing

Deep scalp donor sites can be difficult to manage because of the higher incidence of healing complications that can make daily wound care exquisitely painful. When faced with this problem, we prospectively studied the Unna "cap" dressing on the scalp. Group 1 received our standard treatment--Xeroform gauze (Sherwood Medical, St Louis, Mo) and daily wound care. Group 2 received the Unna cap--Aquaphor gauze (Beiersdorf, Norwalk, Conn) and Dome Paste gauze (Bayer Corp, West Haven, Conn) with wound care every 3 days. Pain, healing time, and costs were compared. Twelve patients between the age of 1 and 54 years were studied. A significant number of patients in Group 1 developed wound complications after initial healing, resulting in a longer length of stay and higher costs. Group 2 reported significantly less procedural pain, comparable healing (11 days +/- 2 SD), and fewer dressing changes, resulting in an institutional savings of $5.51 to $16.25 per patient up to postoperative day 13. This study supports use of the Unna cap as a less painful, safe, and cost-effective alternative to our standard deep scalp donor site dressing.