Procurement and transplantation of colonized cadaver skin

Cadaver skin is an important adjunct to burn care. This study was designed to measure the percentage of its contamination prior to grafting and to determine the clinical safety of its use. Cadaveric homografts from 19 donors were harvested, frozen, thawed, and used as a biological dressing. Cultures were obtained at the time of harvest, after incubation in antibiotics, and at actual transplantation. The homografts were 43 per cent, 68 per cent, and 50 per cent contaminant-free, respectively. Two of 14 patients lost their homografts due to infection. However, no patient developed an infection or lost the homograft due to an organism identified during the pretransplantation processing. Therefore, contaminant-free and slightly contaminated cadaver skin can be used safely as homografts.