Decellularized allogeneic dermis in the treatment of large burns!

With the development of modern medicine, great progress has been made in the treatment of patients with burns, and it is now possible to survive burns covering more than 90% of the body area. At present, the more common method is the postage stamp grafting of autologous superficial skin pieces. Although this method can make the wound heal safely and reliably, it often causes serious dysfunction in the joint area due to scar formation and contracture of the implanted skin pieces at a later stage. Therefore, medical practitioners at home and abroad have been seeking alternatives to dermal tissue for many years. At present, decellularized allogeneic dermis compounded with autologous thin skin slice graft is more frequently used in clinical surgery of burn trauma department. This method is divided into one-step and two-step methods. The one-step method refers to the transplantation of autologous thin skin sheets along with the decellularized dermal matrix; the two-step method refers to the transplantation of autologous thin skin sheets on the surface of the decellularized dermal matrix after it has been vascularized first. Both methods have been experimentally proven with no significant difference in clinical outcomes. The one-step approach is easy to perform, reconstructs the epidermis and dermis in a single procedure, and has a much shorter clinical healing period and less patient pain than the two-step approach, so most medical institutions prefer the one-step approach. In recent years, the application of decellularized allograft dermis has also achieved satisfactory clinical repair results in important joint function areas such as hands and feet. In the past, we generally used autologous medium-thickness or full-thickness skin grafting and autologous flap transfer to repair the trauma of patients with large burns secondary to scar contracture and dysfunction after healing. Large burn patients are covered with scar tissue and lack normal donor area skin, making the traditional method difficult to implement. The advent of decellularized allogeneic dermis has solved this challenge by providing a good scaffold for allogeneic dermis. For decellularized allogeneic dermis composite autologous skin grafting, a large amount of autologous skin is needed to cover the wound, which is difficult to implement in patients with large burns and extremely scarce skin sources. Based on this, we use the “one-step” decellularized allogeneic dermis composite autologous scar thin skin graft to repair the wound in the functional area of the joint and other important parts. Moreover, the donor area has less damage, quick recovery, no scar growth, and can be taken for multiple times, which greatly saves skin source and provides the possibility and condition for multiple surgeries to repair multiple dysfunctions for patients with whole body burns. With the development of tissue engineering technology, the application of epidermal cell culture technology combined with decellularized allogeneic dermis transplantation can also solve the problem of insufficient skin sources for patients with large area burns. The use of decellularized allogeneic dermis and autologous scar thin skin in line with the graft to repair the functional area trauma of plastic surgery patients after large area burns is simple, safe, reliable and effective, and is a practical and effective treatment for the functional reconstruction of plastic surgery patients with large area deep burns and no large normal skin supply, which is worth promoting in clinical practice.