Facilitating residual wound closure after partial graft loss with vacuum assisted closure therapy

Third degree burns require skin grafting. In most instances, if the graft becomes infected, it requires debridement of the site and re-grafting. The purpose of this report is to illustrate the successful healing of a skin graft using negative pressure wound therapy with silver impregnated foam and soft silicone wound contact layer in a 4% total body surface area burn of a lower extremity skin graft infected with Pseudomonas aerugenosa without regrafting. A 27-year-old Hispanic male sustained a gasoline flame burn and presented 72 hours postincident with right lower extremity cellulitis. After intravenous antibiotics, the area was grafted with a partial thickness sheet graft. At 9 days postoperatively, the patient developed a wound infection, with an eventual 40% graft loss and was started on a course of antibiotics. With continued graft loss, on the 22nd postoperative day, negative pressure wound therapy V.A.C. (Vacuum Assisted Closure-KCI, San Antonio, TX) with silver impregnated foam and soft silicone wound contact layer (Mepitel, Molnlycke Health Care, Gothenburg, Sweden) were applied. The wound was completely re-epithelialized by 9 days. In combination with antibiotics, it was possible to treat a residual open wound and prevent the need for regrafting.