title: Controlled clinical study of skin donor sites and deep partial-thickness burns treated with cultured epidermal allografts.
abstract: Two clinical studies in donor sites and deep partial-thickness burns treated with banked cultured human epidermal allografts are described. Ten burn patients were subjected to donor split-thickness skin harvesting. The study was controlled, side-by-side comparative, blind, and randomized. Banked cultured epidermal allografts promoted a faster reepithelialization of the wounds; they epithelialized in an average of 6.9 days, whereas controls healed in an average of 11.1 days, giving a reduction of 37.8 percent in time to heal (p < 0.005). Allografted sites were less erythematous as compared with controls (p < 0.01), with more tendency to normopigmentation. In the deep partial-thickness burns study, 10 patients with 18 burned wounds were treated. Wounds treated with cultured allografts showed complete reepithelialization in about 3 to 6 days. The two clinical studies showed that banked cultured epidermal allograft promotes a significantly faster epithelialization of donor sites and deep partial-thickness wounds. These results support the idea that cultured allografts should be used routinely to improve treatment of burn patients and reduce their therapy time.
authors.affiliation: Burn Unit, Traumatology Hospital Magdalena de Las Salinas, Mexico City, Mexico.
authors.forename: M T
authors.initials: MT
authors.lastname: Rivas-Torres
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Amato
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Arámbula-Alvarez
authors.forename: W
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Kuri-Harcuch
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D002056:Burns / Q000601:surgery*; D002478:Cells, Cultured; D000078404:Epidermal Cells; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D016038:Skin Transplantation / Q000379:methods*; D013997:Time Factors; D014015:Tissue Banks; D014184:Transplantation, Homologous; D014945:Wound Healing / Q000502:physiology