[A new method of expanding free skin grafts]

The harvested skin was processed by a skin-cutting-machine into strips of 0.3 or 0.5 cm in width. Then, the skin strips were glued on alternate folds of a pleated sheet of paper, each fold of which was 0.3 cm or 0.5 cm in width. The paper with skin strips on it was spread flat and cut across into 0.3 cm or 0.5 cm strips. These strips were again glued to another sheet of plicate paper. After being cut across again, many small blocks of skin in equidistance were finally obtained. They were then grafted on the recipient site. The area of grafted wound was four fold or more of the original area of the harvested skin. This method has been used in 6 patients with good result.