Autologous Epidermal Graft Using Suction Blister in Leg Ulcers

ABSTRACT

Regardless of the any cause leg ulcers are painful and inconvenient to patients and present clinical and economic problems due to their chronicity. Conventional skin grafts, cultured allogenic epidermis, and cultured autologous epidermis have been used for the treatment of leg ulcers. In a twenty-year-old woman with leg ulcers, autologous pure epidermal sheets were obtained from the lower chest by means of suction blisters and grafted to the leg ulcers. All lesions were healed completely in 20 days after grafting. The donor sites showed slight postinflammatory hyperpigmentations without scars. The autologous epidermal graft using suction blisters appears to be a useful method for the treatment of leg ulcers, with no immunologic rejection, no need for cultivation and anesthesia, no desiccation, and no scars on the donor sites.