Negative Pressure Wound Therapy for Skin Grafts

The repairing of various wounds is always a great challenge in burn surgery and plastic surgery. Skin-grafting is the main therapy. Bolster dressings are traditionally applied to secure the graft to the wound bed, however, there is some evidence to show that irregularly contoured recipient sites, poorly healing areas, reduce the success rate of skin-grafting with traditional bolster dressings, increasing morbidity, pain. Negative pressure wound therapy has been advocated as a potential solution to some of these issues. To further test the healing rate and safety of this new method, the investigators propose a prospective randomized controlled trial to compare this method with traditional bolster dressings application in skin-grafting.

The repairing of various wounds is always a great challenge in burn surgery and plastic surgery. Skin-grafting is the main therapy. Bolster dressings are traditionally applied to secure the graft to the wound bed, however, there is some evidence to show that irregularly contoured recipient sites, exuding wounds, poorly healing areas, and the presence of shear stress significantly reduce the success rate of skin-grafting with traditional bolster dressings, increasing morbidity, pain, hospital stay, and cost. Negative pressure wound therapy (NPWT) has been advocated as a potential solution to some of these issues. the application of NPWT to skin-grafting may promote blood flow and microcirculation to the graft bed, reduction of edema, exudates, and hematomas, and result in significant qualitative improvement in split skin graft take. To further test the healing rate and safety of this new method, the investigators propose a prospective randomized controlled trial to compare this method with traditional bolster dressings application in skin-grafting.