• David E Varon, Jessica D Smith, Deepak R Bharadia, Neha Shafique, Dharaniya Sakthivel, Eric G Halvorson, Kristo Nuutila, and Indranil Sinha.
• Research Assistant; Division of Plastic Surgery, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston, US., Harvard Medical School, Boston, US.
• J Wound Care. 2018 Jul 1; 27 (Sup7): S12-S18.

ObjectiveSplit-thickness skin graft (STSG) donor site dressings can play an integral role in reducing donor site morbidity. This study tested a novel, chitosan-based wound dressing, Opticell Ag, as an STSG donor site dressing for wounds <10% total body surface area (TBSA).MethodBetween January and December 2016, the chitosan-based dressing was placed on participating patients' donor sites immediately following graft harvest and covered with a transparent occlusive dressing. Pain was evaluated on postoperative day one, before dressing change between days 5-7, and before and after dressing removal between days 10-14 using the Visual Analog Scale (VAS). The extent of re-epithelialisation was determined between day 10-14 and at one month, and healing quality was also evaluated at one month post-operatively using the Vancouver Scar Scale (VSS).ResultsA total of 19 patients were recruited, of which 16 completed the study. Patients experienced mild-to-moderate pain in their donor sites when the chitosan-based dressing was used. Pain decreased significantly between postoperative day one and days 10-14, as well as between days 5-7 and 10-14. The mean percentage of re-epithelialisation on days 10-14 was 92% and by one month was 99%. The mean VSS at one month was 3.2±1.4. There were no statistically significant differences between patients' re-epithelialisation rates or VSS scores. There were unplanned dressing changes in four patients. No donor site infections or other adverse events were identified.ConclusionThe chitosan-based dressing tested in this study is safe, effective, and associated with reasonable pain control and acceptable healing quality. The results suggest that it is a promising STSG donor site dressing.

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