TY  - JOUR
A1  - Straub, Anton
A1  - Brands, Roman
A1  - Borgmann, Anna
A1  - Vollmer, Andreas
A1  - Hohm, Julian
A1  - Linz, Christian
A1  - Müller-Richter, Urs
A1  - Kübler, Alexander C.
A1  - Hartmann, Stefan
T1  - Free skin grafting to reconstruct donor sites after radial forearm flap harvesting: a prospective study with platelet-rich fibrin (PRF)
T2  - Journal of Clinical Medicine
N2  - Reconstruction of the donor site after radial forearm flap harvesting is a common procedure in maxillofacial plastic surgery. It is normally carried out with split-thickness or full-thickness free skin grafts. Unfortunately, free skin graft transplantation faces wound healing impairments such as necrosis, (partial) graft loss, or tendon exposure. Several studies have investigated methods to reduce these impairments and demonstrated improvements if the wound bed is optimised, for example, through negative-pressure wound therapy or vacuum-assisted closure. However, these methods are device-dependent, expansive, and time-consuming. Therefore, the application of platelet-rich fibrin (PRF) to the wound bed could be a simple, cost-effective, and device-independent method to optimise wound-bed conditions instead. In this study, PRF membranes were applied between the wound bed and skin graft. Results of this study indicate improvements in the PRF versus non-PRF group (93.44% versus 86.96% graft survival, p = 0.0292). PRF applied to the wound bed increases graft survival and reduces impairments. A possible explanation for this is the release of growth factors, which stimulate angiogenesis and fibroblast migration. Furthermore, the solid PRF membranes act as a mechanical barrier (“lubrication” layer) to protect the skin graft from tendon motion. The results of this study support the application of PRF in donor-site reconstruction with free skin grafts.
KW  - platelet-rich fibrin
KW  - free skin grafts
KW  - radial forearm flap
KW  - donor-site morbidity
Y1  - 2022
UR  - https://opus.bibliothek.uni-wuerzburg.de/frontdoor/index/index/docId/27885
UR  - https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-278854
SN  - 2077-0383
VL  - 11
IS  - 12
ER  -