Immediate ambulation of patients with lower-extremity grafts

Immediate ambulation of patients who have had lower-extremity skin grafting has been practiced in our burn center since 1987. A retrospective review of patients who had lower-extremity skin grafting only and a survey of burn centers in which 109 centers responded were conducted. Average skin graft take in our burn center was 96.4%. Patients in our burn center walked 30 feet independently by postoperative day 1.7, whereas the survey response average was 7.2 days (p less than 0.001). Average length of stay was 12.6 days (p less than 0.012). This review demonstrated that although immediate ambulation after lower-extremity grafting is not a widely adopted procedure, it does not impair graft take and may decrease the average length of stay.