Burn reconstruction incorporates any one of a number of surgical procedures in an effort to improve the appearance and functioning of skin deformed by burns. Your plastic surgeon may rely on one or more techniques such as skin grafts, flaps, tissue expansion, and scar release.
Not only can burn reconstruction help burn victims achieve a normal appearance following injury, it can aid in preventing infection, morbidity and diseases that burn victims are at higher risk for contracting.
When to Consider Burn Reconstruction in Tampa
Indications for burn reconstruction in Tampa can be understood by considering the characteristics of the procedures used. Symptoms requiring tissue expansion, skin grafts and flaps are outlined below:
Tissue expansion
- Insufficiency of soft tissue required to complete burn reconstructive procedure
- Results in minimal donor site morbidity and scarring
- May be used on various body parts
- Can provide tissue with sensory function or appendage attributes
Skin Grafts
- Reduction of scar contracture
- Reduction of fluid loss
- Protection from bacterial invasion
- Promotion of accelerated healing of burns and other wounds
Skin Flaps
- Wound coverage when inadequate blood supply to the wound bed prevents skin graft survival
- For functional and cosmetic requirements for wound coverage
- Tissue needed to cover gliding tendons, for bulk tissue to fill contour defects, and for specialized sensory function
Your Burn Reconstruction Procedure with Dr. Albear
Burn reconstruction surgery can take anywhere from a few minutes for an injection to 6 hours if a flap is required for a complex defect.
If tissue expansion is part of the burn reconstruction treatment plan, you can expect your procedure to take place in an outpatient surgical facility and last an average of 1-2 hours. Either local or general anesthesia may be used, depending on the extent of the procedure. Dr. Albear will make a small incision next to the area of skin to be repaired. He will then insert a silicone balloon expander beneath the skin. To fill the expander with saline, it is equipped with a tiny tube and a self-sealing valve, usually left just beneath skin surface. Follow-up visits will be scheduled at his Wesley Chapel office so that once the incision heals, Dr. Albear can inject the expander with additional saline.
With skin grafting, either local anesthesia or general anesthesia may be used. If an autograft (section of healthy skin taken from another location on the patient's own body) is selected, Dr. Albear will first remove damaged tissue from the wound site to ensure that the skin graft will adhere to the recipient site. He will then collect the graft with a dermatome, a tool that shaves very thin slices of skin, and place the graft on the recipient site, securing it at the edges with sutures. Ointment and mesh gauze, bandages, casts, or elastic netting may be used to help keep the graft in place.
A skin flap, like a skin graft, is the transplantation of tissue from one part of the body to another; the flap, however, takes its original blood supply with it, while the graft is stripped of its blood supply during. In this procedure, Dr. Albear will remove skin, along with underlying fat, blood vessels and sometimes muscle, from a part of your body to the wound site.
What Happens After Burn Reconstruction Surgery?
The initial dressing placed on burn wounds site may remain in place from 3 days to 1 week, and new dressings are placed over the site until the skin is fully healed. Dr. Albear will go over instructions for postoperative treatment like recipient site dressings, as well as the application of lotion to graft sites to alleviate symptoms patients experience in the healing process.
Please contact Dr. Albear's Wesley Chapel office to set up a personal consultation if you would like to learn more about your options for burn reconstruction in Tampa. The office is a convenient commute for residents of the Tampa Bay metro area.
