Chronic wounds continue to present a significant challenge to health-care providers across the globe. Unlike acute wounds, chronic wounds do not proceed through an orderly process of repair. In recent years, a number of wound healing treatments, such as dermal replacement scaffolds and negative pressure wound therapy, have promoted wound healing by stimulating the formation of granulation tissue. However, until recently there were few modalities designed to promote epithelialisation of a fully granulated wound. Split-thickness skin grafts (STSGs) have long been the gold standard for the management of acute wounds, but have not gained favour in the treatment of chronic wounds for several reasons: discomfort associated with the donor site, the creation of a second wound (donor site) in a patient with poor wound-healing potential, and a lack of documented efficacy for the procedure. Epidermal grafting does not have some of the limitations encountered with STSG; however, it has not gained wide acceptance, as previous harvesting techniques were cumbersome and time-consuming. A novel automated epidermal harvesting system, CelluTome Epidermal Harvesting System (KCI, an Acelity company, San Antonio, TX, USA), was commercially introduced in 2013. The system yields up to 128 epidermal micrografts that can be easily harvested at the bedside without anaesthesia and transferred to the recipient site. The harvesting technique and the use of epidermal grafts in wounds are reviewed here.
Keywords: chronic wounds; epidermal grafting; wound healing.