Use of in vitro reconstructed skin To cover skin flap donor site.
BACKGROUND
The skin flap technique is widely used in reconstructive surgery for the coverage of deep burns of the face, neck, and joints. Facial deformities and joint contractures are avoided by transplanting vascularized full-thickness skin on wounds. The major drawback of this technique is the injury inflicted upon the donor site, which corresponds to a third degree burn. The usual technique to cover the flap donor site is the transplantation of split-thickness autografts. In the case of patients with deep and extensive burns, the harvesting of good quality autografts is often difficult because of multiple scars. In order to avoid additional trauma to the patient by split-thickness skin harvesting, we have experimented the use of a new model of in vitro reconstructed skin graft for flap donor site coverage in a mouse model.


METHODS
The reconstructed skin was grafted on the back of nude mice at the skin flap donor site, while flap was used to cover a wound generated on joint of the posterior leg.


RESULTS
A 100% graft take was achieved (16 mice were used) and a limited contraction of the reconstructed skin was observed 30 days posttransplantation (78% of the initial surface area of the graft remained). Histological analysis of the graft demonstrated healing of a well differentiated epidermis laying on a dense dermis.


CONCLUSIONS
Since this technique would prevent additional trauma to the patient while achieving a good healing of the wound, it may be a useful approach in the coverage of skin flap donor site in humans.
Li
H
H
Laboratoire des Grands Brûlés/LOEX, Hôpital du Saint-Sacrement, 1050 chemin Sainte-Foy, G1S 4L8, Canada.
Berthod
F
F
Xu
W
W
Damour
O
O
Germain
L
L
Auger
F A
FA
D000818:Animals; D002056:Burns / Q000601:surgery; D003094:Collagen; D005069:Evaluation Studies as Topic; D005347:Fibroblasts / Q000637:transplantation; D005782:Gels; D006085:Graft Survival; D006801:Humans; D066298:In Vitro Techniques; D015603:Keratinocytes / Q000637:transplantation; D008297:Male; D051379:Mice; D008819:Mice, Nude; D016038:Skin Transplantation / Q000379:methods* / Q000473:pathology; D017768:Skin, Artificial; D013524:Surgical Flaps / Q000473:pathology; D013997:Time Factors; D014182:Transplantation, Autologous
D005782:Gels; D003094:Collagen