Polyurethane Semi-occlusive Dressing for Full Thickness Skin Graft Application

Lee, Hyuk Gu; Son, Dae Gu; Kim, Hyun Ji; Kim, Jun Hyung; Han, Ki Hwan

Abstract

A traditional tie-over dressing may be applied to support the take of a skin graft. Although there are many advantage of this method, it has significant disadvantages, including time-consuming application. Furthermore, when the dressing is changed, the gauze becomes hard and can be stuck to the graft, causing damage and pain upon removal. The purpose of our study is to evaluate the effect of semi-occlusive dressing using polyurethane foam and film dressing(Allevyn(R), Opsite(R)) after full thickness skin graft. The authors treated 45 cases including burn scar contracture(n=38), syndactyly (n=1), absence of nipple-areolar complex(n=4), traumatic skin defect(n=1) and contact burn(n=1) with authors' method and 39 patients including burn scar contracture (n=39) with the tie-over dressing between 2000 and 2004. The patients in polyurethane foam and film dressing group ranged from 1 to 62 years of age (mean age, 15.1 years) and the patients in tie-over dressing group ranged from 2 to 60 years of age(mean age, 21.3 years). The postoperative results were analyzed according to the following measures: (1) the duration of graft-taking, (2) the admission period, (3) complications. Compared with the traditional tie-over dressing, polyurethane foam and film dressing was shown to be more successful in a reduced duration of graft-taking, in which was similar to the former in the rate of graft-taking, a reduced admission period and patient's discomfort. We concluded that semi-occlusive dressing using Allevyn(R) and Opsite(R) was an effective method after full thickness skin graft, which was easy to shape to difficult body locations, such as web spaces, fingers and maintains a moist environment for wound healing and does not stick to the wound.