title: Secondary intention healing in skin surgery: our own experience and expanded indications in hidradenitis suppurativa, rhinophyma and non-melanoma skin cancers.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  There are many situations in integument surgery in which secondary intention healing (SIH) may bring results comparable or even superior to those obtained with primary intention healing.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  To present our own methods of employing SIH in surgical treatment of different skin lesions. Moreover, to delineate the extended indications for SIH as a first-line method of wound treatment.
  
  
  METHODS
  Between 1999 and 2009, we conducted 236 operations followed by SIH in the group of 195 patients. Two independent investigators and the patients carried out post-operative assessment (at 12 months) of both cosmetic and functional results of operations (data for 142 patients). Moreover, at 3 and 12 months, patients were asked for self-evaluation of the outcomes of surgical procedures using the visual analogue scale (VAS).
  
  
  RESULTS
  The most frequent indications for SIH were defects after the excision of non-melanoma skin cancers and hidradenitis suppurativa lesions. Depending on localization, the mean extent of the post-operative wounds prepared for SIH ranged from 0.8to 85.7 cm(2). The healing lasted 2-12 weeks. The most important factor was the size of the wound (r = 0.59; P < 0.001). The assessment at 12 months revealed that cosmetic/functional outcomes were evaluated as 'good' or 'excellent' in 89/83% and 72/70% cases, according to patients and physicians respectively. VAS showed that evaluation scores at 3 months post-surgery were significantly lower than at 12 months (P < 0.0001).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  SIH is a safe and efficient form of treatment for various post-operative skin defects. In certain areas of the body, SIH shows favourable cosmetic and functional effects. In these cases, it may even be regarded as the method of choice.
authors: Department of Dermatology, Venereology and Allergology of Wroclaw Medical University, Wroclaw, Poland.
authors: A
authors: A
authors: Bieniek
authors: Ł
authors: Ł
authors: Matusiak
authors: I
authors: I
authors: Chlebicka
authors: J C
authors: JC
authors: Szepietowski
mesh_terms: D017497:Hidradenitis Suppurativa / Q000601:surgery; D006801:Humans; D012224:Rhinophyma / Q000601:surgery; D012871:Skin Diseases / Q000601:surgery*; D012878:Skin Neoplasms / Q000601:surgery; D014945:Wound Healing