The dermis graft: another autologous option for acute burn wound coverage

Split-thickness skin autografts are the gold-standard in providing permanent acute wound closure in major burns. Split-thickness dermal grafts harvested from the same donor site may provide an additional autologous option for permanent acute coverage and increase the number of potential autologous donor sites.

We performed 16 dermis grafts (DG) harvested from the skin of the back in 9 consecutive burn patients. A control donor site consisted of an area of adjacent back skin from which a standard split-thickness skin graft was harvested. The mean age was 63 years (range 23-79 years). The mean initial burn size was 24% TBSA (range 2-40% TBSA). The size of the 16 DG recipient wound beds ranged from 20 to 180 cm2, with mean and median sizes of 62 and 45 cm2, respectively.

Dermis graft take was complete in 15/16 cases. All grafts recorded >90% epithelialisation by 4 weeks. There was no significant difference in dermis graft and control donor site healing times (p value 0.05).

Dermis grafts can provide an additional autologous option for permanent coverage in acute major burn wounds without increasing donor site size or morbidity.