Everts PAM, et al. - The purpose of this trial was to gain an understanding of the adjunctive use of epidermal grafting in patients with chronic wounds. It was possible to achieve wound surface reduction with the aid of proactive early application of biological therapies and epidermal skin grafts. These could assist in decreasing the time to wound healing.

Methods

• Wound bed preparation included the surgical necrotectomy or sharp debridement, hyperbaric oxygen therapy, negative pressure wound therapy, compression therapy, platelet-rich plasma therapy and/or heparan sulphate agents.
• Herein, the epidermal grafts were harvested from the patient's thigh and applied to the wound.
• This was followed by monitoring of the wound and donor site healing.

Results

• The enrollment consisted of 78 patients (average age = 64·1 ± 15·6 years).
• Hypertension (47·4%), venous insufficiency (37·2%) and obesity (28·2%) were included as the common comorbidities.
• Average wound duration was found to be 13·2 months (range: 0·3-180 months).
• Dehiscence (29·5%), radiation ulcer (24·4%) and venous ulcer (17·9%) were disclosed as the most common wound types.
• Total time from epidermal grafting to wound closure was revealed to be 10·0 ± 7·3 weeks.
• Sixty six patients (84·6%) reached full wound closure (49 < 3 months, 16 < 3 months, 1 without time data), among the 78 wounds.
• Moreover among the 78 wounds, 10 (12·8%) patients underwent partial wound healing, while 2 wounds (2/78; 2·6%) remained unhealed.