Assessment with the dermal torque meter of skin pliability after treatment of burns with cultured skin substitutes.

The assessment of visco-elastic (V-E) properties in cutaneous scars is critical to reduction of impairment and restoration of function after grafting of excised burns. Cultured skin substitutes (CSS) that consist of autologous keratinocytes and fibroblasts attached to biopolymer substrates are alternatives for permanent closure of excised, full-thickness burns, but assessment of scarring has been subjective. V-E properties of CSS were measured with a Dia-Stron Dermal Torque Meter (DTM 310, Dia-Stron, Ltd, Broomall, Pa), which applies a constant torque (10 mNm) for a fixed interval (10 seconds) and measures rotational deformation and recovery. Parameters of skin deformation were measured in patients (n = 10) after grafting of CSS or meshed skin autograft. Native human skin (NHS) of healthy volunteers (n = 13) served as the control. Skin healed after treatment with CSS or autograft was evaluated for 1 year or longer after grafting. Elastic stretch (Ue), viscous stretch (Uv), total extensibility (Uf), elastic recovery (Ur), total recovery (Ua), and residual plasticity (R) were measured as degrees of rotation, were tested for significance (P < .05) by Student t test comparisons between treatment groups and controls, and were subjected to regression analysis. Assessment of burn scar with the Dermal Torque Meter detected time-dependent increases of all individual parameters of V-E properties for both CSS and autograft during the first year after grafting. At 1 year or later, no statistical differences were found between CSS and autograft for individual parameters, but Ue and Ur for autograft were significantly lower than for NHS. At 1 year or longer, autograft was significantly different from CSS or NHS, with a greater ratio of Uv to Ue, and both graft types had a lower ratio of Ur to Uf than NHS had. These results suggest that instrumental measurement of scar pliability may increase objectivity in assessment of patient recovery and establish an absolute scale for quantitative analysis of V-E properties in skin after grafting of conventional or alternative skin substitutes.