Improved Management of Skin Graft Donor Sites: With Silver Sulfadiazine Dressings

The voluminous literature concerning the management of burn injuries has little to say about the skin graft donor site, and a sampling of the general knowledge of donor site healing time and the reharvesting interval suggests that there is an unnecessary prolongation of each. A method of managing skin graft donor sites employing silver sulfadiazine (Silvadene) is presented. The approach permits reharvesting of donor sites within nine or ten days as well as providing a more comfortable donor wound that is clinically healed within six to ten days. Two case reports of patients with major burns are utilized to illustrate the techniques employed on the Burn Unit of the Children's Hospital of Michigan.