• Nieves Vanaclocha, Luis Miranda Gómez, Maria Dolores Pérez Del Caz, Vicente Vanaclocha Vanaclocha, and Francisco Javier Miranda Alonso.
• Department of Plastic Surgery and Burns, University and Polytechnic Hospital La Fe, Valencia, Spain. Electronic address: nievesvanaclocha@gmail.com.
• Burns. 2024 May 1; 50 (4): 903912903-912.

IntroductionNutritional support is essential in burn care. There are few studies investigating the effect of nutrition on burn healing. The purpose of this study was to determine the relationship between perioperative serum prealbumin levels and the probability of autologous skin graft take in burned patients.Materials And MethodsA prospective observational study was carried out with burned adults recruited consecutively from April 2019 until September 2021. Serum prealbumin was determined perioperatively. The percentage of graft take was evaluated over the first 5 postoperative dressing changes. Time until full epithelialization (absence of wounds) was also registered.ResultsA total of 60 patients were recruited, mostly middle-aged people with moderate flame burns. Serum prealbumin levels and graft take had a weak-moderate, nonlinear, statistically significant correlation. They were also an independent predictor of full epithelialization on the fifth dressing change, together with burn depth. Higher perioperative serum prealbumin levels were significantly associated with a reduction in time until full epithelialization.ConclusionsPerioperative serum prealbumin levels are significantly correlated with the probability of split-thickness skin autograft take in burned patients and with a reduced time to achieve complete epithelialization. They were an independent predictor of full graft take.Copyright © 2024 Elsevier Ltd and International Society of Burns Injuries. All rights reserved.

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