Biomechanical performance of a disposable graft stapler with absorbable skin tacs.

A stapler has been specially designed for fixing skin grafts to the underlying wound. The stapler has a loading unit which can be reloaded with cartridges of absorbable tacs. Each tac is made of a polymer which is biocompatible with tissue. The stapler ejects the tac into the graft, reliably securing it to the underlying tissue. The force and work required to eject the tacs were significantly less than that needed to form the metal staples. The most obvious advantage of the tac is that the majority of the tacs spontaneously extrude after the first dressing change. The performance of the disposable graft stapler with absorbable skin tacs has been compared to that of the disposable skin stapler with metal staples.