Principles and practices for treatment of cutaneous wounds with cultured skin substitutes.
BACKGROUND
Skin substitutes prepared from cultured skin cells and biopolymers may reduce requirements for donor skin autograft, and have been shown to be effective in treatment of excised burns, burn scars, and congenital skin lesions.


METHODS
Cultured skin substitutes (CSS) generate skin phenotypes (epidermal barrier, basement membrane) in the laboratory, and restore tissue function and systemic homeostasis. Healed skin is smooth, soft and strong, but develops irregular degrees of pigmentation. Quantitative analysis demonstrates that CSS closes 67 times the area of the donor skin, compared to less than 4 times for split-thickness skin autograft.


CONCLUSIONS
CSS reduce requirements for donor skin autograft for closure of excised, full-thickness cutaneous wounds, and demonstrate qualitative outcome that is not different from meshed, split-thickness autograft. These results offer reductions in morbidity and mortality for the treatment of burns and chronic wounds, and for cutaneous reconstruction.
Boyce
Steven T
ST
Department of Surgery, University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, Ohio 45229, USA. boycest@email.uc.edu
Warden
Glenn D
GD
D001672:Biocompatible Materials; D002056:Burns / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000601:surgery; D002478:Cells, Cultured; D005544:Forecasting; D006801:Humans; D015603:Keratinocytes / Q000637:transplantation; D012867:Skin / Q000166:cytology / Q000293:injuries*; D012879:Skin Physiological Phenomena; D016038:Skin Transplantation / Q000451:nursing; D017768:Skin, Artificial; D017695:Soft Tissue Injuries / Q000601:surgery; D023822:Tissue Engineering / Q000379:methods*
D001672:Biocompatible Materials