J Korean Soc Plast Reconstr Surg.  1998 Aug;25(6):997-1002.

Storage of the split-thickness skin piece using proper antibiotics

• Minn KW
• Park JG

Abstract

Todays, remnant split-thickness skin graft is stored for graft failure or for delayed grafting. Refrigerated skin is usually stored for 3 weeks, after which, cellular respiration ceaces. Even though the refrigerated skin can be used before 3 weeks after harvest, the success rate of the skin graft is usually lower than in case of fresh skin. One of the most reliable explanations is multiplication of microorganisms on the stored skin, that is, the more microorganisms on the refrigerated skin, the less the success rate of grafts. For this reasons, some kind of antibiotics have been used for storage of the split-thickness skin piece. But there is no report about the effect of antibiotics on stored skin. We want to know the effect of the antibiotics on stored skin. For this purpose, we did three experiments for qualititative bacteriology of refrigerated skin. Experiment 1 was qualititative identification of microorganisms colonizing split-thickness skin after 2 weeks storage in low temperature, and sensitivity tests for identified microorganisms. On the basis of experiment 1, the proper antibiotics were selected and samples of split-thickness skin were stored using this antibiotics. At 2 weeks after storage in low temperature, samples of split-thickness skin were cultured for identification of bacterial growth. This is experiment 2. Experiment 3 is histologic examination of the split-thickness skin involved in experiment 1 and 2.In the experiment 1, we found five kinds of microorganisms in 9 out of 30 split-thickness skin samples. The most common microorganism was coagulase negative Staphylococcus which was found in 4 samples. Through the antibiotics sensitivity test, teicoplanin was selected as the most proper antibiotics. In experiment 2, we could not find any microorganisms in 30 split-thickness skin samples. In experiment 3, there were no histologic differences in the split-thickness skin samples whether antibiotics were used or not. Through these results, we have confirms that split-thickness skin pieces are more safely stored using proper antibiotics.

MeSH Terms

Anti-Bacterial Agents*
Bacteriology
Cell Respiration
Coagulase
Colon
Skin*
Staphylococcus
Teicoplanin
Transplants
Anti-Bacterial Agents
Coagulase
Teicoplanin