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Grafting and Micrografting in Wound Care

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Pearls and Pitfalls in Skin Ulcer Management

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Abstract

Chronic wounds represent a challenging problem and wound care is becoming of primary importance for plastic surgeons. Many strategies have been tested to treat chronic wounds, such as advanced wound dressings, negative-pressure wound therapy (NPWT), and surgical procedures, with good results in terms of enhancing the healing process.

The use of autologous skin grafts, either full thickness or split thickness, represents a valuable option in wound healing, even though the extension of donor sites is limited. Allograft and xenograft, but also tissue-engineered artificial skin, provide prompt but temporary coverage. An ideal graft should be immediately available, non-immunogenic, permanent, and associated with low morbidity.

Numerous techniques have been developed to face these problems, such as the meshing technique and micrografting.

The Meek technique is probably the most popular micrografting technique and it was developed by Cicero Parker Meek in 1958, with the idea of covering large wounds using less skin from the donor site by cutting the skin grafts into small pieces. His first attempts were performed on burns because of the lack of skin in these patients, but lately, this technique has become of primary interest in the treatment of chronic wounds and scars.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Unit of Plastic Surgery and Microsurgery, University of Pisa, Pisa, Italy

    Alberto Bolletta, Davide Di Seclì, Mirco Pozzi & Emanuele Cigna

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  1. Alberto Bolletta
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  2. Davide Di Seclì
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  3. Mirco Pozzi
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  4. Emanuele Cigna
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Unit of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, Department of Precision and Regenerative Medicine and Jonic Area, University of Bari, Bari, Italy

    Michele Maruccia

  2. Plastic Surgery Unit, University of Trieste, Cattinara Hospital, Trieste, Italy

    Giovanni Papa

  3. Difficult Wound Healing Unit, Policlinico di Monza, Vercelli, Italy, Italy

    Elia Ricci

  4. Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, University of Bari Aldo Moro, Bari, Italy

    Giuseppe Giudice

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Bolletta, A., Di Seclì, D., Pozzi, M., Cigna, E. (2023). Grafting and Micrografting in Wound Care. In: Maruccia, M., Papa, G., Ricci, E., Giudice, G. (eds) Pearls and Pitfalls in Skin Ulcer Management. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-45453-0_37

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-45453-0_37

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