Skin Substitute Patient

What is a skin substitute?

A skin substitute is made from natural and/ or synthetic properties that create a “skin like” covering to help heal your wound.
Skin substitutes are made from a variety of sources:
- Those made from another person or cadaver are called allografts.
- Those made from other species are called xenografts ○ Some are made from human placenta and human intestinal layers.
Your surgeon will decide what type of skin substitute is best for you.

Your skin substitute will need to be placed on the “cleanest “wound bed possible. This means your wound will need to first be debrided in the operating room while you are put to sleep under general anesthesia. The surgeon will debride or “clean” the wound bed with a scalpel, this will remove any bacteria that has settled on the wound bed.
Once the wound is clean a skin substitute will be placed. Sometimes the skin substitute is held in place using sutures or staples to prevent it from shifting.
Your skin substitute will be covered by a dressing or may be covered by a wound vac (negative pressure wound therapy). A wound vac is a small medical device that removes wound drainage by pulling drainage SHIRAHSURGICAL.COM through a small flexible tube into a small canister. A wound vac can help prevent the skin substitute from shifting and will also promote healing.
Some skin substitutes are placed in preparation for a possible split thickness skin graft. In this case the skin sub will be left in place for several weeks then you would go back to the operating room for a skin graft where a piece of your own skin is taken from another part of your body (called donor site) and placed over the wound. Talk to your surgeon about this possible option.

You will leave the hospital with a dressing in place. Do not remove this dressing.
Plan to rest for a week after surgery.
Take your medications as prescribed.
If your skin substitute is located on your arm or leg, avoid any movement that could cause the skin substitute to shift. Keep the area of skin substitute as still as possible.
Keep your dressing and/or wound vac CLEAN, DRY, and INTACT.
Do not shower until approved by your surgeon. You may take a sponge bath and avoid your dressings getting wet.
Your first dressing change will be done by your surgeon in the outpatient wound clinic.

If you have heavy bleeding that saturates the dressing, hold light pressure over the dressing for 10 minutes and call your surgeon. If the bleeding does not stop, go to ER.
If you have any signs of infection like fever, chills, severe pain at site, visible bright redness outside of dressing edges and/or hot to the touch call your surgeon.