[Wound treatment with autogenous epidermal cell expansion culture]

Sheets of autologous epidermal cells grown by expansion culture were used to cover small skin defects in seven patients with postoperative necroses, necroses due to temporal arteritis, varicose ulcers or after tangential excision of tattoos. Several transplantation techniques were used: backing of the cultured epithelia with vaseline gauze, Surfasoft, Adaptic, Silastic foil, culturing directly from Petriperm-foil. Meshed Silastic-foil proved to give the best support. Optimal take of the in-vitro epithelia (more than 80% of their surface area) was achieved only for fresh dermal wound-beds. The take was only moderate on chronic granulation tissue, but the transplants reduced the formation of fibrinous-necrotic material and favoured the formation of fresh granulation tissue.