INTRODUCTION
Split-thickness skin graft is a common procedure among plastic surgery
departments and burn units.
It’s an easy, time and cost saving procedure that allow coverage of
wounds or large skin defects.
Despite the wide diffusion of that procedure, management of the skin
graft’s donor site is sometimes difficult and up to 20% of patients,
especially the elderly ones shows a delayed healing. 1
There’s no universal consensus on the best treatment of this site and a
plenty of dressings has been proposed including polyurethane foam2,
Vacuum Therapy, petrolatum gauze, Honey3, or thin thickness grafts 4.
Usually healing with a complete epithelization takes about 15-21 days5;
nevertheless every plastic surgeon, in his career, has to face with the
issue of an unhealed donor site and the discouraging treatments that
follows.
The aim of this observational pilot study is to evaluate the effect of
the treatment with topical corticosteroids applied to non-healing skin
grafts donor sites and exploring their role in modulating chronic
inflammation and local pain.