Surgical management of irradiated skin in the pig

The effects of previous irradiation on the revascularisation and survival of skin flaps and split-thickness grafts have been investigated in pigs. Irradiated skin raised as a skin flap results in a considerable loss of tissue. However, when only the base containing the supplying blood vessels was irradiated, 'normal flap' survival was recorded. This indicated that radiation damage in the dermal microvasculature may be more detrimental to tissue viability than that in the larger vessels supplying the flap. The survival of split-thickness skin grafts on an irradiated vascular bed depended on the thickness of the graft. Thin grafts (230 μm) failed to 'take' but thick grafts (750 μm) revascularised normally and the graft was retained on the irradiated vascular bed. (author)