If you visit Dr. K Roxanne Grawe , then you will be able to learn more about what plastic surgery entails. It is a surgery which might inv...
If you visit Dr. K Roxanne Grawe, then you will be able to learn more about what plastic surgery entails. It is a surgery which might involve various techniques to move and be able to manipulate the tissues of the body.
Before you have your plastic surgery, you will need to consult with a plastic surgeon who will help to explain in details what is going to happen before, during and after the surgery is done. It is possible that you will be given a psychological assessment.
Before the newer technologies, skin grafts used to be the main type of plastic surgery. Nowadays you can do the surgery using tissue expansion and flap surgery.
Skin grafts
This is where you will have to remove healthy skin from an unaffected area of the body and use it to cover the damaged or lost skin. This can be used for bone fractures which break the skin and leave the bone open, wounds that are large, or an area of the skin which is surgically removed due to burns or cancer.
Two main types of grafts include
· Split or partial thickness skin graft: In this type, a thick layer of skin is normally shaved from an area which usually heals very well such as the calf, buttocks or thighs. The area which donates heals within 2 to 3 weeks and for a few months, it will be pink before it fades away and leaves a faint scar which is rarely noticed.
· Full-thickness skin graft: The layers underneath and the one on top is where the full thickness of skin is removed and then the areas are closed. Sites on your body which will be used for this type of skin grafts include behind the ear, the neck, the groin,and the upper arm. Due to the fact that this type of skin graft tends to be thicker, it can be more difficult to pick up a new blood supply and thus, the dressing will be left in place for 5 to 7 days before it is removed by the team who does the surgery.
What happens?
Before the procedure is conducted, you are going to be given a local or general anesthetic, with the dosage depending on the location and size of the area which will be affected. The skin graft will be held in place with the use of staples, stitches, special glue or clips. The area will then be covered using a sterile dressing until it has fully connected with the surrounding blood supply which will take around 5 to 7 days.
There will be a dressing which will be placed over the area that the skin has been taken from, that is, the donor site, in order to help it to be protected from infection. If the area is that of partial thickness skin, it will take about two weeks for the area to heal fully.
In case the area is for full skin grafts, then it will take 5 to 10 days and it will be fully healed.
