title: A prospective randomized trial of absorbable staple fixation of skin grafts for burn wound coverage.
abstract: A prospective randomized trial of absorbable versus metal skin staples for securing skin grafts to excised burn wounds was performed in 20 patients. The absorbable staples were easy to use and efficacious in securing the skin grafts, except to edematous fatty tissue. Aesthetically, the absorbable staples yielded as good or better results when compared with metal staples resulting from a lack of tissue distortion. A decrease of 61.4 minutes of the most significantly painful portion of the postoperative dressing change (i.e., staple removal) would have been avoided by using absorbable staples. The overall cost of using the absorbable staples for small burns was comparable with metal staples; however, the cost difference was significantly greater for large burns.
authors.affiliation: Department of Surgery, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada.
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Best
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Lobay
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Moysa
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Tredget
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001672:Biocompatible Materials / Q000191:economics; D002053:Burn Units; D002056:Burns / Q000601:surgery*; D002648:Child; D003365:Costs and Cost Analysis; D005069:Evaluation Studies as Topic; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010149:Postoperative Pain; D011100:Polyglycolic Acid; D011446:Prospective Studies; D016038:Skin Transplantation / Q000379:methods*; D017792:Surgical Stapling / Q000191:economics*
chemical_list: D001672:Biocompatible Materials; D011100:Polyglycolic Acid