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Published on: August 22, 2016
[Exploration of the mechanism of skin expansion]
1Department of Plastic and Aestetic Surgery, General Hospital, Jinan Military Region of People's Libration Army, Jinan 250031, PR China.
Objective:
In order to explore the mechanism of skin expansion technique (SET).
Methods:
Domestic dogs were used in this experiment. The epidermal mitotic activity, capillary blood flow change of the expanded flap were observed with microspectrophotometer and radioactive microsphere technique.
Results:
1. The epidermis of expanded skin was significantly thicker than that of other groups (P < 0.05). 2. The epidermal mitotic activity was elevated significantly(P < 0.01). 3. The capillary blood flow of expanded flaps increased significantly (P < 0.01).
Conclusions:
1. The surplus skin produced by SET is the result of replication, not compensation. 2. SET increases skin blood flow, therefore enlarges the survival area of an expanded flap.
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