Which dressing for split-thickness skin graft donor sites?

There are a variety of methods used for the postoperative management of the donor site created after harvesting a split-thickness skin graft. The authors compare three major groups of dressings-open, semiopen, and closed-performed on 60 patients divided into three groups. These different dressings were compared based on healing time, quality of the regenerated skin, and patient comfort. Biopsy specimens were obtained from the donor sites of each group for the assessment of healing quality and stage. An ideal donor site dressing method is one that affords protection from dehydration and prevention of wound and infection while also achieving rapid and painless healing of the donor site. The closed-dressing group had the shortest healing time, shown both clinically and histologically, and superior patient comfort was also documented in this group. The closed-dressing group showed qualitatively superior healing when compared with open and semiopen donor sites. This was attributed to protection from dehydration and mechanical trauma, and avoidance of exogenous contamination.