Plasma scalpel excision of burns. An experimental study

We used a plasma scalpel to excise experimental full-thickness burns in 12 pigs, followed by immediate skin autografting. The results were as follows: (1) The skin autograft takes were excellent following the plasma scalpel excisions, and they healed on essentially the same time scale as similar autografts following steel scalpel excisions, producing scars of similar sizes. (2) Pigs in which burn wounds were excised with a steel scalpel lost an average of approximately 5 gm of blood for every one gm lost in the animals which had excisions with the plasma scalpel. (3) The time required for a plasma scalpel burn excision was essentially the same as that required for a standard steel scalpel.