An alternative dressing for skin graft immobilization: negative pressure dressing

The key difficulty of skin grafting is keeping the graft immobilized on uneven surfaces involved with motion, such as the nuchal area, axilla, web spaces, and the perineal area. This study reports the development of a new idea of negative pressure dressing (NPD) to maintain good immobilization of the skin graft and, at the same time, not cause any significant distress in the patient's daily life. Furthermore, the components of this dressing are available in ordinary hospitals. In this report, there are eight cases of skin grafts which were applied by this method, and the average success rate was similar to 97%. Therefore, use of negative pressure dressings to safeguard immobilization of the skin graft is an appropriate alternative method for grafts on uneven or mobile surfaces. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science Ltd and ISBI. All rights reserved.