Introduction: Burns, as a common type of injury in children,
have many developed techniques for management of its
wounds, but still have many obstacles which meet plastic
surgeons. One of these is the lack of the donor sites for
autogenous skin grafting especially in large body surface area
burns which are unfortunately common in developing countries
with limited technical and financial resources. Finding a
suitable methodology to address this problem was our main
hypothesis in this project. A mixed grafting technique based
on using mini-autogenous skin grafts covered with large
homogenous skin graft had been investigated for this purpose.
Patients and Methods: This study is a prospective study
of 20 patients with post burn raw areas who were treated as
inpatients at the Burn Unit of Assiut University Hospital,
Egypt between September 2017 and September 2019. Patients
were divided into 2 groups. Group: 1 with 10 children treated
by covering the wounds with mini autogenous skin grafts and
skin homo grafts and Group: 2 with 10 children treated by
the conventional autogenous skin grafts only.
Results: The mean age was 6.8±2.3 years, 15 males and
5 females. The mean of the harvested skin in group 1 was
1.7±0.67% vs. 3.3±1.06% for group 2 (p < 0.001). Although
the mean time of surgery was significantly longer for patients
of group 1, these patients showed significant less bleeding
from the site of the donor than the 2nd group. There were
non-significant differences between both groups regarding
the take of the graft at the recipient site (p=0.476). The
hyperpigmentation was significantly higher among patients
of group 2 (p=0.024).
Conclusion: From this study we advocate the use of mini
autogenous skin grafts covered with skin homografts for
covering the extensive post burn raw areas in children. It
provides the covering for wide raw areas in presence of
shortage of the donor sites. It is a valid reliable procedure
with easier and less expensive aspects suitable for developing
and low-income countries where large wound burns are so
common.
No specific grants were received by this research from
funding agencies in the commercial, public, or not-for-profit
sector.