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Updated: Mar 27, 2026
Apparatus for Harvesting Tissue Microcolumns
Published on: October 25, 2018
An Automated and Minimally Invasive Tool for Generating Autologous Viable Epidermal Micrografts
Sandra N Osborne1, Marisa A Schmidt, John R Harper
1Sandra N. Osborne, PhD, is a Staff Scientist; Marisa A. Schmidt, BS, is a Scientist III; and John R. Harper, PhD, is Chief Technology Officer; all at Kinetic Concepts, Inc (KCI), in San Antonio, Texas. The authors have disclosed that the research reported was funded by KCI, and the authors are employees of KCI. Acknowledgments: The authors thank Brad Jonietz for managing the project; Andy Ziegler, Sameer Sabir, and Robert LaRoche for thoughtful discussions, guidance, and training using the CelluTome (KCI, San Antonio, Texas) device; Anthony Rycerz, Karen Beach, Ricardo Martinez, Julissa Ramos, Michael Manwaring, and Veronique Smith for critical review of the manuscript; Jagan Achi and Isabella Pacetti for help with data operations; Zhenmei Liu, David Flores, and Roberta James for statistical analyses; Michele Hilmer, Lorenzo Pina, Staci Poettgen, and Jill Twardowski for assistance with clinical operations; and Clinical Trials of Texas, Inc, for administration of the clinical study (San Antonio, Texas). Submitted July 25, 2014; accepted in revised form December 8, 2014.
Objective:
A new epidermal harvesting tool (CelluTome; Kinetic Concepts, Inc, San Antonio, Texas) created epidermal micrografts with minimal donor site damage, increased expansion ratios, and did not require the use of an operating room. The tool, which applies both heat and suction concurrently to normal skin, was used to produce epidermal micrografts that were assessed for uniform viability, donor-site healing, and discomfort during and after the epidermal harvesting procedure.
Design:
This study was a prospective, noncomparative institutional review board-approved healthy human study to assess epidermal graft viability, donor-site morbidity, and patient experience.
Setting:
These studies were conducted at the multispecialty research facility, Clinical Trials of Texas, Inc, San Antonio.
Patients:
The participants were 15 healthy human volunteers.
Results:
The average viability of epidermal micrografts was 99.5%. Skin assessment determined that 76% to 100% of the area of all donor sites was the same in appearance as the surrounding skin within 14 days after epidermal harvest. A mean pain of 1.3 (on a scale of 1 to 5) was reported throughout the harvesting process.
Conclusions:
Use of this automated, minimally invasive harvesting system provided a simple, low-cost method of producing uniformly viable autologous epidermal micrografts with minimal patient discomfort and superficial donor-site wound healing within 2 weeks.
