Viability of skin subjected to deep partial skin thickness thermal damage: experimental studies

Secondary tissue loss in burn wounds (due to necrosis in the zone of stasis) is interpreted as a sequel of progressive vascular occlusion and dehydration of thermally damaged tissue. In this study on rats, delayed healing represented an additional factor in determining the fate of tissue that had sustained deep partial skin thickness burns. Early revascularization induced by excision and subsequent replantation of the burned skin resulted in survival of a large part of the corium. Replantation reduced the loss of full thickness skin seen in controls left to heal spontaneously to partial loss in treated wounds. The experiments substantiate the theory that deep partial skin thickness thermal damage is at least partly reversible and indicate that with tangential excision of dermal burns a viable part of the corium is sacrificed. This deeper part of the corium can be saved by early excision and replantation.