Abstract
Burns injuries are extremely complex and elicit physiological and metabolic interactions involving all major organ systems. These pathological changes occur in a time dependent manner. In the last decades, burn care has improved, so the trend in the current treatment extends beyond the preservation of life. Thus, ultimate goal is complete rehabilitation of the burn victims. To investigate the effectiveness of the use of heterogenous collagen and intermingled autologous split-thickness skin for early coverage of raw areas in deep burns with paucity of donorsite as a life saving measure. A total of 10 subjects between the age group of 5 to 30 years (mean age 22 years) who sustained deep burns with total burn area from 60% to 80% (mean 72 %) and full thickness burn from 40% to 50% (mean 44 %) were treated with collagen and autologous split thickness graft sheets. Complete wound epithelialization took between 30 to 50 days.Rejection of collagen within 5 days was observed in only 1 out of 10 subjects and 2 subjects demonstrated incomplete epithelialization. A total of 9 out of 10 patients survived and 1 patient expereienced death due to an acute rejection reaction. The combination of collagen andsplit thickness skin grafting is an effective method to cover the wounds and achieved satisfactory healing pattern, a minimal rejection phenomenon and good survival rates. Moreover, it can be efficient as a life saving measure in deep burns with few donor areas available for grafting specially for developing and third world nations where expensive facilities like CEA are not feasible.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Fauerbach JA, McKibben J, Bienvenu J, Magyar-Russell G, Smith MT, Holavanahalli R et al (2007) Psychological distress after major burn injury. Psychosom Med 69:473–482
Sanghavi P, Bhalla K, Das V (2009) Fire-related deaths in India in 2001—a retrospective analysis of data. Lancet 373(9671):1282–1288, Epub 2009 Feb 26
Elizabeth Chipp, Jules Walton, David Gorman, Moiemen NS (2008) Adherence to referral criteria for burns in the emergency department. Eplasty 8:e26, Published online 2008 May 9
Coruh A, Tosun Z, Ozbebit U (2005) Close relative intermingled skin allograft and autograft used in treatment of major burns in adults and children. J Burn Care Rehabil 26(6):471–477
Domres B, Kistler D, Rutczynska J 2007 Intermingled skin grafting: A valid transplantation method at low cost. Annals of Burns and Fire Disasters 20 (3).
Tavis MJ, Harnay JH, Thompton JW (1975) Modified collagen membrane as a skin substitute: preliminary studies. J Biomed Mater Res 9(3):285–301
Nguyen DQ, Potokar TS, Price P (2009) An objective long term evaluation of Integra (a dermal skin substitute) and split thickness skin grafts in acute burns and reconstructive surgery. Burns. Oct 26 (Epub ahead of print)
Phipps AR, Clarke JA (1991) Use of intermingled autograft and parental allograft skin in treatment of major burns in children. Br J Plast Surg 44(8):608–611
Boyce ST, Kagan RJ, Yakuboff KP, Meyer NA, Rieman MT, Greenhalgh DG, Warden GD (2002) Cultured skin substitutes reduce donor skin harvesting for closure of excised, full-thickness burns. Ann Surg 235(2):269–279
Boyce ST, Goretsky MJ, Greenhalgh DG, Kagan RJ, Rieman MT, Warden GD (1995) Comparative assessment of cultured skin substitutes and native skin auto graft for treatment of full thickness burns. Ann Surg 222(6):743–752
Dellatte SJ, Evans JU, Audre H, Adamson W, Othersen HB, Tagge EP (2001) Effectiveness of beta-glucan collagen for treatment of partial thickness burns in children. J Pediatr Surg 36:113–118
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Bhatia, V.Y., Singh, M. Innovative technique using heterogenous collagen and intermingled autologous split-thickness skin graft for coverage of raw areas in deep burns with paucity of donor site as a life-saving measure. Eur J Plast Surg 34, 93–97 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00238-010-0475-8
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00238-010-0475-8