Calculation of practical skin donor area for meshed skin grafting in real-world surgery.

ABSTRACT

Meshed skin grafting is a common technique in operations to minimize surgery on the donor site area. However, the donor site area is empirically determined by surgeons due to the lack of a reliable formula to calculate the donor area required to cover a skin defect. To determine the minimal size for donor skin, the expansion rates of 1.51, 31, and 61 meshed skin graft and the area actually covered by them were investigated in real-world operations. About 51 patients who received 57 operations with meshed skin grafts were enrolled in this study. The average clinical coverage rates of area in cases in which 1.51, 31, or 61 meshed skin grafting was performed were 1.02, 1.29, or 2.18, respectively. Those rates were notably low when recipient sites were concave. The average expansion rates of 1.51, 31, and 61 meshed skin grafts were about 1.16, 1.61, and 2.32, respectively. These results indicate that the size of donor skin should be about 85%, 60%, and 45% size of the recipient site to achieve the target 1.51, 31, and 61 meshed skin graft, respectively. In addition, the donor area should be adjusted in consideration of the shape of the recipient sites.