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Updated: Jun 10, 2026
Tissue Characterization after a New Disaggregation Method for Skin Micro-Grafts Generation
Published on: March 4, 2016
[Donor site preserved skin grafts. A clinical study of 10 cases]
S Smarrito1, M Mimoun, G Zakine
1Centre des grands brûlés, hôpital Saint-Antoine, 184, rue du faubourg Saint-Antoine, 75571 Paris cedex 12, France.
Introduction:
In spite of a rigorous technique, a graft will not necessarily completely take on a burned area. We propose to preserve on the donor site the excess skin graft harvested during the excision-graft procedure.
Patients And Methods:
A clinical study was carried out in nine patients who had their excess skin graft preserved at the time of excision-graft for deep burn. The unused fragments of skin graft were preserved on the donor site. In the event of a small skin graft failure, the preserved skin graft was separated from its donor site and used as a new skin graft during wound dressing.
Results:
Nine patients required the use of 10 preserved skin grafts. The average age was 54years and the average burned third degree surface was 17% total body surface area. In seven procedures for six patients, the preserved skin graft was taken off without pain and was used with a complete take. In three cases, the preserved skin graft was not used because in two cases, the take of the initial skin graft was complete and in one case, a definitely insufficient take required reoperation.
Conclusion:
The preservation and use of the skin graft as a complement was simple and useful and made it possible to easily complete a skin graft when the initial take was incomplete. It would appear to be efficient in burn surgery since it accelerates cicatrisation and avoids the need for a new graft harvesting procedure.
