title: Full-thickness skin grafting with marginal deepithelialization of the defect for reconstruction of helical rim keloids.
abstract: Excising a keloid from the helical rim generally results in a narrow defect with exposed cartilage. Skin grafting is a surgical method with a lowest recurrence rate for keloid treatment. Full-thickness skin grafting may produce an excellent cosmetic outcome, but is generally considered too unreliable over a poorly vascularized defect with exposed cartilage. Adding a new healthy bed with rich vascularity on the periphery will increase the probability of the entire graft surviving via the bridging phenomenon. We report full-thickness skin grafting using a marginal deepithelialization technique for treatment of helical rim keloids. After keloid excision, the surrounding normal skin was deepithelialized 2 to 3 mm wide over the defect border, followed by full-thickness skin grafting. All grafts survived completely. None of the keloids recurred, and they all showed an excellent aesthetic result during the follow-up period from 9 months to 6 years.
authors.affiliation: Oregon Health & Science University, Portland, USA. jsburm@gmail.com
authors.forename: Jin Sik
authors.initials: JS
authors.lastname: Burm
authors.forename: Juliana E
authors.initials: JE
authors.lastname: Hansen
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D002648:Child; D004431:Ear, External / Q000601:surgery*; D004954:Esthetics; D005260:Female; D006085:Graft Survival; D006801:Humans; D007627:Keloid / Q000601:surgery*; D008297:Male; D016038:Skin Transplantation / Q000379:methods*; D016896:Treatment Outcome