Skin grafts are often necessary for difficult wounds that are unable heal from the edges on their own. Such as in the cases for an excision of cancer, a traumatic injury or an open wound. Or other circumstances that leave the area open to infection for prolonged periods of time.

Skin grafts aim to cover areas that would otherwise take months or even years to heal on their own and would otherwise would seriously encumber your life.

Patients often come to me with wounds that have failed dressing changes, antibiotics elevation and various graft substitutes done in non-surgical wound care clinics. A skin grafted wound properly done should be able to take and heal your wound with a high percentage after just 2 weeks. Not every wound is a candidate for a skin graft, but the majority are.

Full-thickness skin grafts take the full thickness of skin from some part of your body and place it on your wound. Generally, this area, where the skin has been harvested, is properly closed with stitches and will heal quickly within in 2 or 3 weeks.

A split-thickness skin graft is when a graft is taken with a machine called the Dermatome that takes 12,000ths of an inch from the outer layer of your skin. The donor site then heals, scabbing and drying out over the next month.

Both techniques work very well but should be individualized depending on what kind of wound you have. Dr. Jacobsen uses a wound VAC device which you may have had before. The wound VAC used in our Hospital has an extra tube that allows the wound to be irrigated twice an hour with an antibiotic solution to maximize the take of the graft and minimize infection.

We have very strict rules and very strict postoperative care requirements that have led to a very high healing rate.

At the hospital we have a very educated team of specialists including: Wound Care Internist, Infectious Disease Doctors, Cardiologists, Pulmonologists and other specialists to ensure the wound heals and no other medical complications arise that can lead to failure. In many cases it is to your advantage to have a skin graft for a chronic open wound. Reducing the amount of healing time and dressing changes to the site. Rather than endure dressing changes that can carry on for the remainder of your life. Our office is here to help. If you have a difficult or persistent skin condition please call or email us and we will be happy to help you.

To help accelerate the process please feel free to take advantage of the Inquiry Tool located to the right. Including a photograph of your wound and, or a short written description of your condition. We will be happy to tell you whether or not we can heal your wound with a skin graft.

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