Burn Surgery

Burn surgery typically involves excising (completely removing) the burned skin and replacing it with a skin graft. This is done to all burns that are either full thickness or deep partial thickness in depth. Surgery is done under general anesthesia and should be done ideally as soon as the diagnosis of a deep burn is done.

Skin grafts are harvested from the patient itself from unburned areas, typically from the thigh. The harvested skin is very thin, usually 12/1000 inches (0.3mm) in thickness. The donor site, where skin is harvested from, typically heals (grows new skin) in about 10 days.

Both the donor site and the skin grafted areas take a long time to mature. They both are red for months and may be firm and raised if scar starts to build up in thickness (hypertrophy). To minimize this so-called pressure garments are used to provide pressure the surgical sites and to keep them flat and soft. Garments have to be worn 23h a day, every day, for 3-12 months depending on the patient's individual tendency to develop thick scars.