EVALUATION OF THE ROLE OF CALCIUM ALGINATE IN HEALING OF THE SKIN GRAFT DONOR SITE

Abstract

Treatment of skin graft donor sites is one of the less satisfactory aspects of skin grafting. The main difficulty arises from the fact that the standard dressing becomes extremely hard and adherent to the wound, and its removal frequently causes bleeding and considerable pain as the regenerating epithelium is torn off.

Various commercial dressings have been developed with the object of easing the discomfort, which the patient suffers, and shortening the healing time.

None to date has fulfllled its promise. The majority of modern dressings are designed to maintain a moist environment at the wound-dressing interface to facilitate rapid epithelization.

This study included 20 patients requiring split thickness skin grafts.The donor site in each case was divided into two halves. One half was dressed with Sofratulle®. The other half was dressed with Kaltostat®.