Skin soft tissue expansion: history, development, technical revolution and application innovation / 中国组织工程研究

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND: Skin soft tissue expansion is a common surgical procedure to grow extra skin through controlled mechanical over-stretch, which has been extensively applied in the tissue repair and reconstruction of plastic surgery through more than 30-year development. OBJECTIVE: To review the history, development, technical revolution and application of the skin soft tissue expansion and to give prospects. METHODS: A computer-based online search was conducted in CNKI and PubMed databases using the keywords of "tissue expansion, tissue expander, histology, pre-expanded flap, prefabricated flap, perforator flap, imaging technology, skin transplantation, reconstructive surgical procedures, stem cells transplantation, clinical application" in English and Chinese, respectively. A total of 4 189 articles were retrieved, and finally 105 eligible articles were included.RESULTS AND CONCLUSION: Skin soft tissue expansion, combined with prefabricated flap technique, perforator flap technique, imaging technology, and stem cell transplant, can build lager area of expanded flap, allowing us to repair more defected regions. Single prefabricated expanded flap is used in total facial reconstruction, known as "Chinese face shift", which is better than the traditional allografts, marking a significant medical innovation in plastic surgery.