Prevention of burn wound conversion by allogeneic keratinocytes cultured on acellular xenodermis.

Deep dermal burns frequently tend to convert into full-thickness skin loss. We found that this wound deepening may be prevented by recombined human/pig skin (RHPS), consisting of human allogeneic keratinocytes cultured on acellular pig dermis. RHPS has skin-like consistency and therefore optimal adhesiveness to the wound. It can be easily removed from the dish and transferred to the recipient. The wound bed has to be prepared by tangential excision or deep dermabrasion to the level of capillary bleeding. RHPS has to be applied 'upside-down', with the epidermal layer facing the wound, to avoid the dermal matrix forming a barrier to the nutrients for the keratinocytes. In our practice, more than 70% of early excised or deeply dermabraded wounds grafted with RHPS healed in the course of one week after keratinocyte transplantation.