Care of split thickness skin graft
 

The donor site is the site where skin is taken from and transferred to fill in the defect from where the cancer was  taken. This is usually the upper outer thigh.

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This dressing needs to be kept dry until it is removed (typically 7-14 days).
 

This wound is usually dressed in layers. On the outside there is a compression bandage. This should on 3- 7 days. It often gets loose, if it falls off after the 3 day mark there is no need to put in back on.

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The next layer is what we call a bolster. This is usually some gauze squares bunched up and used to push down onto the wound with a white tape dressing (e.g. hyperfix or fixamol). We prefer to remove this in the clinic as it is super sticky and pulling it off can irritate the skin and sometimes damage the healing wound underneath.

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The next layer is a non-stick absorbent dressing like cutelin. This layer generally catches and absorbs most of the bleeding. It can get hard after a few days if it has absorbed a bit of blood.

 

The next layer which sits directly on the wound is mesh which is covered in a sticky vaseline like product. This helps the wound heal and stops the dressing from sticking to the wound.

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If the wound gets increasingly painful, especially at rest it may be infected and you should contact me for advice/review.

If the wound oozes through all at layers of bandages this also needs review.

If the wound gets wet remove the outer bandage and gently pat dry the dressing underneath. If the dressing is soaked then come in for a dressing change.