Skin Grafts: A Common Treatment for Severe Burn Injuries

Living under the hot Tampa, Florida sun, many of us have experienced sunburn. In most cases, sunburn is a relatively minor burn to the top layer of the skin. When sunburn occurs, deeper levels of skin generate new skin cells underneath the burn to heal the damage.

However, anytime your skin suffers severe burns caused by automobile accidents, house fires, or scalding liquids, damage may be caused to the full thickness of the skin, limiting your body's ability to heal itself. Not only are deep burns like these difficult for your body to heal, but they also leave you vulnerable to infection.

To encourage faster healing and minimize scarring, doctors may use a technique called skin grafting as a way to treat severe burn injuries. Skin grafting is a surgical procedure in which skin is taken from a healthy area of your body—called a donor site—and transplanted to the severely burned area. The transplanted skin is held onto the burned area by dressings, stitches, or staples. If the skin graft is successful, new blood vessels will begin connecting to the transplanted skin within 36 hours.

Before skin grafting surgery, patients are given general anesthetic which allows them to be unconscious and pain-free during surgery. While the surgery is being performed, patients may also be given blood transfusions to replace any blood loss.

In most skin graft surgeries, only the top two layers of skin are taken from the donor site and transferred to the burned site. If the burn is especially deep, however, a full-thickness skin graft may be necessary. This is a more complex procedure in which skin, blood supply, and other tissue is taken from the donor site.

When doctors choose a donor site, they try to select an area typically hidden by clothes, such as the upper thigh or inner thigh. Sometimes, skin from a cadaver or animal may be used as a temporary skin graft, to protect the burned area and help it heal faster before a permanent skin graft is performed.

Recovery from a skin graft may take several weeks. The recovery process can be difficult because there are two injured areas to heal—the area receiving the skin graft and the donor site. During recovery, patients may spend up to two weeks in the hospital. Once released from the hospital, skin graft patients must avoid exercise and protect their surgery sites from trauma or stretching for quite a while.

Not only does skin grafting come with a long recovery time, but there are multiple complications to watch out for, such as bleeding, infection, and rejection of the grafted skin. Later on, skin grafting complications may include scarring, chronic pain, lost sensitivity, or increased sensitivity.

If you have been in a car accident in the Tampa, Florida area which has resulted in serious treatments such as skin grafting surgery, please contact Tampa automobile accidents lawyer Dale Appell, P.A. We have been fighting for justice for the wrongly injured in our area for many years, and we would be glad to assist you by offering a free assessment of your case.