Immediate Regrafting of the Split Thickness Skin Graft Donor Site Assists Healing

Background: Delayed or even lack of healing of a split-thickness skin graft (STSG) donor site is a potential problem with elderly patients or those with poor wound healing capabilities. A proactive solution that may minimize this risk is to regraft that donor site using otherwise discarded skin graft remnants. Methods: A prospective, nonrandomized, consecutive study was designed to compare the time to healing of the commonly used anterior thigh STSG donor site in patients who had routine dressings (n = 113) versus those with comorbidities known to adversely affect wound healing and had planned regrafting (n = 204). Those comorbidities included age (≥65 years), diabetes mellitus, peripheral vascular disease, chronic renal disease, and chronic steroid use. Results: The average number of comorbidities in the regrafted subgroup versus those not regrafted was 1.41 and 0.31, respectively. This was considered to be a significant difference (P

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