Cultured Epidermis for the Coverage of Massive Burn Wounds

Seven patients with a mean burn size of 69.6% total body-surface area underwent skin grafting with autologous cultured epidermis. They were compared with a historical group of 18 controls, with a mean burn size of 60%, who underwent grafting with conventional meshed split-thickness autograft. There were no statistically significant differences between the two groups in length of hospital stay, total number of surgical operations, or cost. There were no deaths and two major complications in the cultured epidermis group; there were six deaths and 11 major complications in the historical control group. Because of this encouraging early experience, a prospective, randomized study is now in order to evaluate this technology.