Use of cultured epidermal autograft in ten patients

This article updates our single-center experience, which was reported in 1990 (Munster AM, Weiner S, Spence RB. Cultured epidermis for the coverage of massive burns: a single center experience. Ann Surg 1990;211:676-80). Current data include data from the time period 1988 to 1990. To date, 10 patients with a mean surface burn of 71.6% were partially treated with cultured epidermal autograft, and no deaths occurred. A group of 41 control patients (partly retrospective and partly concurrent but not randomized) sustained a mean burn of 54.7% body surface area. There were 14 deaths (p less than 0.05 versus the group that received cultured epidermal autograft). No major problems with late graft fragility (up to 2 years) or contracture were noted.