Autologous, split skin transplantation on the lower limbs of horses.

The skin grafting experiments were carried out on the cannon regions of horses to throw light on four matters relating to split skin transplantation. They were: The thickness of donor split skin that would provide good wound cover and still leave adequate tissue to permit uneventful healing at the donor site; whether split skin grafts were more readily accepted on fresh than on granulating wounds; the size of wounds that would benefit from grafting; and the maximum size of graft that would be readily accepted. The findings were: Split skin grafts 0.76 mm thickness gave the best results although grafts 0.63 mm thickness were satisfactory; split skin grafts were accepted more readily on fresh wounds than on granulating tissue; wounds which exceeded 1/10th of the skin area on the cannon region justified grafting; the upper limit in size was not established as the largest grafts used were more readily accepted than smaller grafts.