Comparison of three different methods of dressing for partial thickness skin graft donor site.

Background: Split- thickness skin graft is one of the most common operations in plastic surgery. It is always painful and patient discomfort from donor site often is more significant than recipient site. There is not still a standard method for treatment of the donor site. The purpose of this study was to determine the best method of dressing the donor site among three different methods with respect to the rate of healing, pain, secretion, infection and cost.

Methods: The study includes 60 patients that were randomly divided into three groups. Donor site and thickness of the graft was the same and were dressed with one of the methods including Method A: Paraffin fine mesh gauze, Method B: Nitrofurazone soaked fine mesh gauze and Method C: Dry fine mesh gauze. Each method included an intermediate layer of sterile plastic sheet witch was covered with 10 layers of dry gauze. Comparison with respect to the rate of healing, pain, secretion, infection and cost was done.

Results: Thirty seven patients were men and 23 were women. The mean age of the patients was 27.2 years. There was a significant difference between three methods in average time of repair and superiority of dressing with Method B was noted. Pain severity was the least in Method B and difference between the methods was significant. Dressing with Method B had the least secretion and there was a statistically significant difference between three methods. There was no statistically significant difference in cost of the management.

Conclusion: This study showed that dressing the donor site with nitrofurazone ointment soaked gauze used as the first layer of dressing and intermediate layer of sterile plastic sheet which was covered with 10 layers of dry gauze was the best method of dressing and had the least complications.