title: Wound healing at adaptation zones of skin flaps harvested from acute burned skin.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Early reconstruction of burn defects culminates in more successful results. The wound healing process of the burned skin affects not only the curative phase of the burned area but also result of any reconstructive procedure including the regional flaps. Thus, in this study, we have evaluated the wound healing process at the distal incisions of random-pattern skin flaps prepared from burned dorsal skin of rats.
  
  
  METHODS
  Thermal burn damage was performed with dimensions of 3cm×3cm on Wistar albino rats. In group 1 (n=12), no burn was produced and 3cm×3cm caudally based, random-pattern skin flaps were elevated. In group 2 (n=12), a 5cm×5cm area of partial-thickness thermal damage was produced and after three days a 3cm×3cm random-pattern skin flap was elevated as in group 1 inside the burned skin site. In group 3 (n=12), 3cm×3cm area of partial-thickness thermal damage was produced and after three days 3cm×3cm random-pattern skin flap was elevated. In group 4 (n=12), 3cm×3cm area of partial-thickness thermal damage was produced and after three days a 3cm×3cm random-pattern skin flap was elevated at the distal margin of the burned area. The flaps were adapted to the donor sites in all groups. The histopathological evaluation was done and hydroxyproline levels were measured.
  
  
  RESULTS
  There were no significant differences between groups regarding presence of epithelialization, myofibroblast numbers, and collagen texture (p>0.05). Neovascularization level was significantly higher in group 2 than the other groups (p<0.05). There were no statistically significant difference among the hydroxyproline levels in all four groups (p>0.05).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The preference of the incision site in a burn zone while designing a flap during the acute burn period was proposed to possess no difference in terms of wound healing in an animal model.
authors.affiliation: Department of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, Baskent University, Faculty of Medicine, Ankara, Turkey.
authors.forename: Gurler
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Akinbingol
authors.forename: Huseyin
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Borman
authors.forename: Tugrul
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Maral
authors.forename: Cagri A
authors.initials: CA
authors.lastname: Uysal
authors.forename: Handan
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Ozdemir
authors.forename: Suna
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Turkoglu
authors.forename: Mehmet
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Haberal
mesh_terms: D000208:Acute Disease; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D000818:Animals; D002056:Burns / Q000601:surgery*; D003094:Collagen / Q000032:analysis; D004195:Disease Models, Animal; D004847:Epithelial Cells / Q000166:cytology; D058628:Myofibroblasts / Q000166:cytology; D018919:Neovascularization, Physiologic / Q000502:physiology; D051381:Rats; D017208:Rats, Wistar; D013524:Surgical Flaps; D060053:Transplant Donor Site; D014945:Wound Healing / Q000502:physiology*
chemical_list: D003094:Collagen
keywords: Burn; Flap; Flap survival; Hydroxyproline; Model; Reconstruction; Wound healing