Novel method of skin substitution in plastic surgery

A skin substitute has been developed by growing a large number of epidermal cells from a skin biopsy (1 cm2) taken from burn patients. In tissue culture the cells divide and grow quickly to form a monolayer sheet. These sheets were then trypsinized into free cells, which were applied onto the wounds of two patients suffering from full skin thickness burns. The cultured epithelial grafts continued to thicken and expand successfully until they became confluent with the surrounding epidermis. All the wounds healed successfully. Clinically and histologically these cultured epithelial autografts were proven to be of the same quality as split thickness skin grafts.