Fish Skin Xenograft Assisting with Split Thickness Skin Graft Harvest Site Management

Introduction: Split thickness skin graft sites have documented healing times of two to three weeks and often have increased pain. Fish skin xenograft was utilized to assist in the management the split thickness skin graft harvest site.Methods:Six patients underwent harvest of split thickness skin grafting to assist in healing their lower extremity wounds. No patients received wound vacuum therapy as a bolster dressing was applied for each case. Each graft donor site was dressed with a non-adherent dressing. Each patient received a single application of the fish skin xenograft to the donor site.Results:All six patients went on to heal their lower extremity wounds with the split thickness skin graft. Patients had an average donor site healing time of eight and a half days. Four patients expressed no pain to the donor site following fish skin xenograft application. There were no healing complications or instances of infection. Two patients graded their pain scores as mild to moderate which was managed with over the counter pain medication.Discussion: Fish skin xenografts are a viable option to assist with faster healing times and decrease subjective pain scoring to split thickness skin graft donor sites.References: