Acute skin trauma induces hyperemia, but superficial papillary nutritive perfusion remains unchanged

Objectives Superficial skin papillary capillaries with blood supply from a superficial vascular plexus and regulated by local metabolic needs, supply oxygen and nutrient for epithelial cell proliferation. A deep vascular plexus regulated by autonomous nerves serves body thermoregulation. In healthy volunteers we assessed circulatory effects of a standardised skin trauma by computer assisted video m microscopy (CAVM), diffuse reflectance spectroscopy (DRS), and laser Doppler perfusion measurements (LDPM) to assess the measuring depth of the three techniques and to describe the acute trauma effects on nutritive and thermoregulatory perfusion. Methods Volunteers (n=12) were examined at baseline and after induction of a 5.0mm x 1.0mm incision on the forearm. 30 minutes after the trauma induction, data were collected at 0-1mm, 2-3mm and 30mm distances. Results LDPM showed hyperemia at 2-3mm distance (35.8±15.2a.u.), but not at 30mm distance (7.4±2.5a.u.) compared to baseline (8.8±1.8a.u.). The DRS saturation increased at 2-3mm (71.2 ±4.8%), but not at 30mm (49.8±7.9%) compared to baseline (45.8±7.4%). Capillary density and flow velocities were unaffected at all distances. Conclusion The results indicate that skin nutritive papillary capillary function can be assessed by CAVM and DRS, but not with LDPM because of its dependence of the deep plexus perfusion. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.